


Boomerang

by zipzin



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, F/F, Friends to Lovers, they are super competitive, they meet when they're 11, will sorta follow canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-24 08:17:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13209687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zipzin/pseuds/zipzin
Summary: Sara didn’t think the girl she met on a hot summer day would be anyone other than someone who she could compete with and perhaps become a friend. Then again, when you’re 11, you have no idea who life will make important.A Childhood Friends AU





	1. Sixth Grade, Part I

It was a fairly average summer day when Sara met Ava. Hot, but not too hot. Just enough that you weren’t sweating the second you walked out, but enough that anything other than shorts and a t-shirt was too much. Laurel had ditched her to go hang out with Ollie and Tommy. Her mom was needed at the University, and her father had a day shift. A note had been left for her, telling her that there was some lunch she could reheat in the microwave, and to go outside and enjoy the summer.

She wasn’t very good at following directions.

She’d spent the majority of the day lounging in front of the TV and eating cereal, but eventually her skin itched to do something, and the TV had gotten boring, so she dressed and started down the street. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was going, her friends were either too far away to walk to or on vacation, so she kicked rocks down the pavement until she ended up next to a playground.

She knew she had seen it before, it was only a couple turns away from her house, but she didn’t think that she had ever been there. Or at least hadn’t been there when she was old enough to remember. It wasn’t much, looked like a playset had been forgotten by the policymakers as much as it had by her. It had one of the roundabouts, a set of monkey bars with two platforms, a structure for climbing, a small patch of grass with a tree next to a dusty water fountain, and the only part that had any people, a swingset. There were two boys on the two swings and a tall girl standing in front of them. Her arms were crossed, hair messy, and jeans ripped. Sara frowned a bit at the picture, just walking in her shorts had made her heat up, but the girl was showing no signs of thinking about the heat. She was much too focused on the boys.

One of the boys slid off the swing, and Sara watched as he stared up at the girl, with a cruel smile. “You’re just a dumb girl.” He spat and looked back at his friend who gave him a thumbs up.

The girl let out a growl, letting out a deep, guttural sound that seemed like it would be impossible from an approximately eleven year old girl, and then wound her arm back and punched him in the face. Sara gasped, a hand coming to cover her mouth, while the boy staggered backwards and then landed on his butt. His hand covered the struck cheek, his eyes filled with tears, and he howled.

“Come on Johnny!” He yelled and started to run away, his friend scampering right behind him. “I’m going to tell my mom.” He yelled back as they took off down the street.

The girl was unfazed and immediately took one of the unoccupied swings and began pumping her legs confidently and smoothly. Sara controlled her laughing and then approached the girl.

“What?” The girl was defensive again, glaring at Sara.

Sara stuttered for only a moment, and then took the swing next to her and said, “Nothing.” The girl stared at her, unsatisfied, so Sara continued, “That was cool.”

The girl seemed satisfied and went back to swinging. After several beats, Sara said, “I’m Sara.”

“Ava.” The girl answered.

She wasn’t very talkative, Sara noticed, and while her sister often accused her of dominating conversations, she was at a loss of where to go forward. “I bet I can jump farther than you.” She finally settled on.

Ava looked at her for a moment, and then gave a little smile, “You’re on.”

They pumped their legs as hard as they could, and for the rest of the afternoon, tried to get farther and farther than the other one. As the sun began to dip behind the hills, and the sky started to move from blue to orange, Sara was in the lead.

“You have one more chance!” Sara yelled from where she stood as a marker of how far she had jumped.

Ava grit her teeth and pumped higher and higher and then swiftly jumped off and came, one pace behind Sara.

“Are you kidding me?” She howled.

Sara laughed and raised her arms above her head. “I am the champion.”

“It’s because you’re smaller.” Ava complained.

Sara shrugged, “That has to be good for something. I should probably head home for dinner.”

“Right.” Ava said shifting nervously.

“Will I see you again?”

“Maybe.” Ava shrugged.

Sara looked at her for a moment, but then nodded. Maybe it was. She waved and then went back in the direction of her house, grinning the whole way home.

 

The next three days, Sara showed up at the playground, but there was no sign of Ava. Once, the two boys were there, the one sporting a fading black eye, but they seemed in a good mood. It wasn’t a lot of fun to be there by herself, but she stubbornly kept around hoping that Ava would show up.

On the fourth day she did, wearing the same ripped jeans and a dirty white t-shirt. She strode into the playground like she owned the place, not seeing Sara who was perched on top of the monkey bars. The boys weren’t there, and Ava took a place on the swings.

“Hey!” Sara hopped down.

“Hi.” Ava smiled.

“I don’t think you can beat me.”

“We’ll see.”

They went back and forth again, but the day got hotter and hotter, so they stumbled out of the park and under the one tree, laying on their backs, sweaty, and breathing hard. Sara was parched, but the water fountain here had been dried up for at least over a year.

“And so then Laurel, she takes one look at it, and just shrieks.” Sara grinned.

“What happened next?”

“My mom comes running in, sees what happened, and I was grounded for a week. Laurel felt bad midway through, but, man, her face.” Sara shook her head. Ava laughed, and Sara felt smug that she could get the quiet girl, quiet unless they were competing, to laugh so heartedly.  “Do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah, four brothers. All older.”

Sara gave her best approximation of a whistle. “That’s a lot.”

Ava shrugged. “A sister would be nice, but I think they’re probably overrated.”

Sara laughed. “Whatever you say. I wish I had a younger sibling.”

“Me too. Be nice to be able to boss someone around.”

“I get the impression that you boss around your older brothers just fine.”

“Oh shut up.” Ava playfully shoved her on the shoulder and Sara chuckled.

The ground her was cooler, and it felt nice against her hot skin. “Where are you going to school?”

“I’m entering 6th at Porter Smith.”

“Me too!” Sara leaned up. “We’re going to be classmates.”

“Great.” Ava rolled her eyes but was smiling.

 

Sara saw Ava a couple more times over the summer, continuing meeting at the playground, though expanding their repertoire to also the spinny thing on the park, and who could stay on that long enough (Ava usually won), and who could get across the monkey bars the fastest (that one was even). Dani, Sara’s friend who lived two doors down, finally came back from vacation. Sara had been itching to introduce her to Ava, but Ava wasn’t there on the few occasions that they made it to the park. They spent most of the time at Dani’s pool, or her house, painting nails, talking about Dani’s trip to LA, and about all the celebrities she had met (Sara was pretty sure that was all lies). Before she knew it, it was the first day of school, and her mom was hovering over her and Laurel as her dad took pictures.

Their parents hovered as they went to the bus stop, until Laurel shot them a look, and then went back to their house. “There’s no need to be nervous.” Laurel smiled at her.

“I’m not nervous.” Sara said as she adjusted the straps of her backpack and her stomach fluttered with butterflies.

“Okay.” Laurel smiled and knocked their shoulders together gently. “But I’m going to be there, even if I’m in 8th grade, and we won’t have lunch together or anything.”

“I’ll be fine Laurel.” Sara grimaced.

“I know, you’re my sister, but it doesn’t hurt to have an ally.”

Sara looked up at her sister and nodded. “Thanks.” She said begrudgingly.

Dani joined them at the bus stop, and Sara migrated towards her, but nodding at Laurel, who looked on with pride. God her sister was a sap.

Sara had hoped that Ava would be on the bus, but there was no such luck, and so she figured that she could finally introduce her two friends at recess. If they had recess. She wasn’t sure how middle school worked.

Laurel had at one point excitedly told her everything that was different, but Sara had only been half paying attention and it was so long ago. Dani talked excitedly throughout the whole ride, and when the bus pulled into the school parking lot, Sara was feeling distinctly queasy.

Her fingers found the folded bit of paper in her pocket that had her schedule printed on it. This was the one that Laurel had drew a detailed map on the back of. Laurel had also insisted she print out two more, which were tucked in one of the folders in her backpack.

“What class do you have first?” Dani asked once they were in the front of the school, trying to not be crushed by the other middle schoolers.

“History with Mr. Aaron. You?” 

“English with Mrs. Yancy.”

“Do we have any classes together?”

They both pulled out their schedules, “Well, lunch,” Sara commented laughing.

“All sixth graders have lunch together.” Dani commented back.

“And math! Last one of the day.”

“Nice. See you at math?”

“See you!”

They split in opposite directions, Sara consulting her map more than she was willing to admit, until she was at Mr. Aaron’s classroom. She hesitantly opened the door, pleased to see that there were already a couple of people in the class already.

Ava sat in the very middle, fiddling with a pencil, in a shirt that was at least three sizes too big.

“Hey.” Sara slid into the seat next to her and lowered her backpack to the ground.

Ava looked at Sara, and then around a bit, and back to Sara, “Hi.” She sounded confused.

Sara smiled. “I’m glad we have a class together.”

“You are?”

“Yes.” Sara frowned at her for a second, “I want to introduce you to my friend Dani.”

“Okay.”

“What other classes do you have?” Ava passed a piece of paper around, and Sara glanced at it. “Oh nice, we have everything, but English and Math together.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Sara smiled. “And Dani’s in Math, so hopefully I’ll find someone I know in English.”

“That’s pretty lucky.” Ava commented.

“I’m lucky.” Sara smiled.

 

It was very nice that the first day of school was only a half-day, Sara knew that she wouldn’t have been able to focus anymore than she already had (and she didn’t even last through every class). Though each class had basically gone through introductions.

It was nice that Sara knew roughly a good amount of people already, her elementary school was one of the biggest, but there were enough new people that her head was spinning from all the new names. Laurel assured it would get better. Her friends had met up out by the sign, Sara had invited Ava, but she had said she had things to do, and it had been nice to see everyone again. Especially since of them, the only one she did have class with was Dani. They had made promises to eat lunch together, and then had hurried to the various buses.

“Was it a good day?” Laurel asked when they were walking up the steps.

“Yeah, it was, I think it’s going to be a good year.”

Laurel gave a beaming smile in response.

 

School was interesting again. The subjects less so, but Ava was always very serious in class that Sara forced herself to pay attention (if she was trying to learn more than Ava then that was beside the point), and Ancient Mesopotamia was surprisingly interesting. Of course, Sara’s favorite class was PE, in there, they could actually compete, playing the variety of sports that the PE instructor, Mr. Coswer, decided for the week. All in all, she was doing well in school, her grades were good, her friends were (mostly) good, and so when she was called out of Math to go to the principal’s office, she was very confused.

“You’re here?” Ava frowned. “Why are you here?”

“Why are you here?” Sara scoffed. “I, at least, make sense. You’ll beat anyone up, but only if there’s no chance that authority will get involved.”

“It’s called being smart.” Ava hissed.

The door opened, and a sharp, clear voice rang out, “Sharpe and Lance.”

The girls’ eyes widened as they looked at each other and then both got out of their seats and walked into the office. The shot each other another look as they noticed that the school counselor, Miss Stevens was there.

“Please close the door.” Principal Wethers said, and Ava smoothly closed it.

Sara plopped down in a seat, and then looked between the two on the other side of the desk.

“Do you know why you are here today?” Miss Stevens asked.

They both shrugged, and shot each other baffled looks. “No.” Ava answered.

Principal Wethers stared at them, “You’re teachers have indicated on some reports, that there is a lot of animosity involved between you to.”

“Animosity?”

“Not liking each other.” Ava said under her breath.

“I know, idiot.” Sara shot back.

Principal Wethers and Miss Stevens were nodding, “You see,” Miss Stevens said, “Like that.”

“That was animosity?” Sara repeated dumbfounded. Ava shrugged next to her.

“Well,” Principal Wethers said, “Your PE teacher also stated that there has been a series of incidents between the two of you.”

“Like what?” Sara repeated.

“Well, last week in soccer, you knocked Ava down. And the week before that, Ava hit you on the head with a basketball.” They both snickered.

“Sara was practicing slide tackles.” Ava shrugged.

“And Ava was trying a no look passes.” Sara added on.

“Well,” The two adults shifted nervously, “There was also the time that you both repeatedly tackled each other during football and yelling things like, ‘Take that sucker!’ or ‘You’re as good as your ability to do calculus. Which is nothing!’.” Principal Wethers put the paper down and blinked a couple times, while Sara had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

The girls at them dumbly. “It’s football.” Ava said.

“Yeah, you’re supposed to tackle each other.” Sara said.

“You had flags!” Miss Stevens voice was getting shriller. She took a deep breath and clutched her chest, a move that made her seem like she was closer to sixty and not the twenty-eight that her appearance suggested.

“I mean, we didn’t tackle the other people,” Sara shrugged, “But we made a pact that against each other we go one hundred percent.”

“One hundred percent.” Principal Wethers repeated dumbly. He and Miss Stevens looked at each other.

“We’re just asking that you tone it down.” Miss Stevens said, “Is that okay, sweethearts? We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Sara shifted in her seat, distinctly uncomfortable. Principal Wethers continued, “We don’t want to have to get your parents involved.”

Sara opened her mouth to retort, argue that her parents would get a kick out of the whole thing, but Ava nodded, “Yes sir.”

They looked at her and Sara nodded dumbly, “Good.” Miss Stevens said, “You can go back to class.”

They got out of their seats as quickly as possible and practically bolted from the room. “Why did you say okay?” Sara demanded once they were several paces away from the door.

“I don’t want to get my dad involved.” Ava shrugged.

“Wouldn’t he think it’s funny?”

“Yeah, but, him having to take off work,” Ava trailed off, “That wouldn’t be worth it. We’ll work something out with Coswer.”

Sara stared at her for a second, and then nodded, “Okay, fine, we’ll talk to him. I can’t believe he wrote down the dumbest insult of all time.”

“Shut up.” Ava said.

“Seriously, how did you even come up with that? It doesn’t even make any sense. Am I supposed to be insulted that I can’t do Calculus? You can’t either.”

“I need to get back to English.”

“Okay nerd!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hope you enjoyed! Would love to hear what you have think of this. This will go into canon, at least that's the plan at the present moment. Feel free to come talk to me on tumblr, I'm zipzin there as well. Thanks for reading!


	2. Sixth Grade, Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sixth Grade, Part II

“Mr. Coswer.” The bumbling teacher looked up from his clipboard and frowned.

“Yes?” He asked.

Behind them a game of dodgeball was taking place, a game that had their furious throws at each other raising no eyebrows. After Sara and Ava both were out, they had shared a look and then gone to corner their teacher.

“We have a complaint.” Ava led and Sara nodded.

He looked between the two, biting his lip. “A complaint.”

“Yes,” Sara continued, “We were called into the principal’s office the other day, because we were too rough.” Sara said using her hands to put finger quotes around the last two words. “Now, several boys in our class are just as rough, but I don’t see you writing reports about them.”

“How do you know that?” Mr. Coswer asked.

“We asked them.” Ava said smugly.

Coswer looked between the two for a moment, something akin to bemusement on his features. “What exactly would you have me do?”

The girls smiled at each other and Ava spoke first, “We don’t want any reports written about us and sent to the principal.”

“We get to be as rough as we want.” Sara continued.

“But only with each other.” Ava finished.

He stared at them for a moment, and then shrugged, “Fine.” The girls broke out into big grins and then high fived each other, “Now go sit down and wait for the next game.”

They went around, making sure to not step into the boundaries of the game, and took a place on the bleachers, both feeling very pleased.

“What was that about?” Penny said loudly behind them.

“Mind your own business Penny.” Sara shot back.

She didn’t like Penny, she wasn’t sure if it was the girl’s high, nasally voice, or the fact that she always tried to learn everything about everyone, all the time. It was probably both.

Ava gave a scowl, and Penny frowned and crossed her arms. She mumbled something under her breath, but it was drowned out by several yells when Derek got the last kid out.

Coswer blew his whistle and yelled for everyone to line up again, Ava and Sara looked at each other once and nodded.

 

“I don’t really understand,” Dani said, “You talk about this Ava girl all the time.”

“So?”

“How come I’ve never met her?” Dani asked.

She sounded genuinely curious, and Sara paused for a moment. “She has other friends, I don’t know where she eats lunch.” Dani raised her eyebrows, but Sara just shrugged. She didn’t actually know.

Even though the cafeteria wasn’t that big, it was big enough that Sara had no desire to walk up and down the aisles to find Ava. Even when it hard rained hard enough that the teachers kept them in the cafeteria. Sure, those times were rare and usually they were allowed to go out in the rain (their after lunch teachers always seemed resigned to the fact that they would come in wet) No, she was completely fine meeting her out on the playground after they had finished eating to play basketball. Several boys joined them each time, and they had a pretty good game going, even if none of them were that good. They weren’t bad, most were a decent shot, but the game was never that serious.

“You should invite her over.” Dani stated.

“Okay.” Sara said, she was pretty surprised that she hadn’t thought of that earlier. As much fun as it was to see Ava in class and at lunch, they were very limited in their options at school. Plus Ava had to live somewhat close (even if she wasn’t on the same bus line), so she could probably walk home. “I’ll ask her on Monday.”

“Good.” Dani said rolling her eyes.

They were almost halfway through sixth grade, and it surprised Sara that she had never invited her over. She’d talked about her a lot, her parents had taken to asking about Ava with shared looks between them (Sara was not about to try and figure out what those looks meant), and Laurel had asked about her a couple times. Hopefully, Ava would be down for the idea. Sara at least thought that they were good enough friends for Ava to come over.

 

It was chilly, but the running up and down the court had caused Sara to peel off her jacket not long ago. Her cheeks were red, and as the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, she half-heartedly pulled it on, and walked to where her backpack was.

“Good game.” She muttered to some of the other players who all nodded, and clumped together. She looked back and waited as Ava tugged an a loose red sweatshirt on. Sara waited a moment, as Ava caught up to her.

“So.” Sara started.

“So?” Ava frowned looking over at her.

“You doing anything after school today?”

“Well, homework.” Ava said.

“Besides that?”

Ava froze for a moment, “No, not really.”

“Um, would you want to come hang out after school?” Sara asked. “We don’t ever see each other away from school, and well, we could do our homework, I guess.”

“That sounds good.” Ava said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You can call your parents from my house.”

“Oh, um, I won’t need to.” Ava muttered.

Sara frowned, but took a glance at Ava’s face, she was staring down at the ground and looked vaguely panicked, so she dropped it. “Okay, well, I’ll meet you at the sign.”

“At the sign.” Ava nodded.

They slipped into their last class they had together of the day, Sara mostly doodling, while Ava paid excellent attention. Ava was a frustratingly good student, and there were several times in class that Sara wondered how she had made friends with such a teacher’s pet.

It was pretty much made up for when Ava would always partner with her on group projects, and Sara always ended up doing her best work (to make sure that Ava would continue to be willing to partner with her). Grades hadn’t really been a thing in elementary school, but she felt like her parents had to be proud. Sure they were probably nothing compared to Laurel’s, but they were better than expected.

 

“Dani, this is Ava.”

Dani was already sitting down, staring at the two of them, and Ava stood back, her arms hanging loosely. The bus wasn’t that full yet, just Bea at the back already reading her book, and two guys chatting in the front.

“Hi.” Dani said.

“Hi.” Ava repeated.

Dani’s eyes skated over Ava, lingering on the worn cuffs and faded red, while Ava stared straight ahead waiting.

“So,” Sara broke the silence and tension that had somehow sprung up. “Why don’t we sit down?”

The slid into the seats behind Dani, and Dani faced them. “It’s good to finally meet you.” Dani said.

“You too.” Ava nodded agreeably.

Sara looked between the two of them back and forth, but she was never very good at starting conversation. Several more people got onto the bus, and they looked at anyone but each other. Laurel boarded, and stopped at Sara’s row.

“Sara!” She smiled, “Is this?”

“This is Ava.” Sara cut in before Laurel could say anything too embarrassing.

“Oh, hi.” Laurel beamed, “It’s lovely to meet you.”

“Thanks.” Ava said giving a small wave and looking unsure about everything.

“It’s just Sara talks a lot-”

“About basketball.” Sara cut her off and leveled a glare at her.

Laurel’s smile grew wider, but she gave an almost imperceptible head nod, “Anyway, I’m going to go grab a seat.”

Luckily, she went further back, and didn’t move forward to where she usually sat near the front. Sara wasn’t sure she could handle the embarrassment of Laurel just coming over to see Ava. She didn’t talk about the girl that much. Dani and Laurel were just being ridiculous.

When the bus made its rounds, and got to their stop, they disembarked.

“I live here.” Sara nodded at her house as they approached, unsure where her shyness was coming from.

Ava looked at the manicured yard and house, “Cool,” she nodded.

“So?” Dani asked.

Laurel was slipping into the front door, and Sara looked back and stared at Dani.

“What are we doing?” Dani asked.

“Oh,” Sara said, “We’re gonna do our homework first, and then I don’t know, hang out, maybe watch some TV.”

“Homework?” Dani scoffed.

“Yeah.” Sara said.

Dani stared at the two for a second, and then relented, “Okay let’s.”

The three walked into the house, and Sara slid her backpack and jacket off and laid it in the hallway, Dani following suit without a second thought, and Ava, after several glances around, following.

They wandered into the kitchen, and Sara pulled open the pantry, “Want any snacks?” Sara herself pulled out a bag of pretzels and Dani some cheese puffs, while Ava just dug her hand in the pretzels.

“So your room?” Dani asked, “Kitchen?”

“My room.” Sara said.

Sara lugged her backpack up the stairs, and the two followed, Dani took a spot on the floor, Sara her bed, and Ava the desk. There was a shuffling of papers, and Sara glanced around a bit. Dani was rolling her eyes and pulling out a folder, and Ava was already scribbling a couple notes down on some piece of paper.

It was a bit weird. Sara usually took the time right after school to do anything other than schoolwork, and then at night, scrambled to finish whatever was do the next day. Dani gave a loud sigh, and Sara looked up momentarily, but then went back to work, crunching on pretzels.

Math was boring, that much was painstakingly clear, and finding x was not exactly getting easier. Her teacher allowed test corrections, so it wasn’t the end of the word if she wasn’t perfect, but she wanted to get it right the first time.

She hovered over the next problem, blinking a few times, and then looked up at Ava’s back. She was good in all their classes, and she was pretty sure she was one of the kids who had skipped a grade of math. Dani was in her class, but Dani always put in less effort than her. Sara stared back at the piece of paper in front of her.

Her concentration broke when Dani sighed again.

“Really?” Ava muttered it under her breath, but not quiet enough that it was lost in the other ambient noise of the room.

“What?” Dani bit out.

“Do you have to make so much noise?” Ava spit out, turning severely at towards Dani.

“Sorry, some of us aren’t robots.” Dani crunched out.

Ava’s eyes narrowed. “Come on.” Sara spoke up.

They both looked at her for a second, Ava then immediately turning back to her work and Dani holding her eye giving a look that said, ‘Really, we’re doing this?’ Sara rolled her eyes and looked back at her sheet.

Wait, she was pretty sure that moving the 7 would make this doable. She started scribbling notes, when Dani spoke up again.

“Do we have to do this?”

“It’s easier to do it now.” Sara grumbled.

Ava’s back had somehow straightened, but she just kept working.

“Is it though?” Dani flipped onto her back so she was staring straight up at the Justin Timberlake poster Sara had on the ceiling. “I mean, right now is prime time.”

“Prime time is at 8pm.” Ava said dryly.

“Not TV idiot.” Dani rolled her eyes. “Come on Sara, don’t tell me you’re this much of a,” Dani paused searching for the right word, “Goody two shoes.”

Something bristled inside Sara at the words, but she stared down at the paper in front of her and did her best to ignore it. “I’m not.” Sara spat out, “I’m just being a good student.”

“Okay.” Dani scoffed and didn’t turn around. “Which is the definition of a goody two shoes, but whatever.”

Sara moved onto the next math problem, “Have you finished the math homework?”

“No.” Dani chuckled. “Come on, Sara, talk to me.”

There was nothing that Sara really wanted to talk about and instead figured out what she was pretty sure the answer was on the next one.

“No.” Sara grumbled.

Dani stood up and began to walk around the room, examining walls that she had already seen countless times. Every now and then she had some banal comment, and it was getting more annoying than a leaky faucet.

“Dani.” Sara finally said. “Can you just shut up?”

Dani’s mouth entered into a furious line. “Fine.” She flipped over and began to go through her folder and shuffle and crinkle papers around. Sara was sure that it was unnecessary. She groaned and looked back at her math sheet. At least she only had two problems left.

The next was was similar to the other and once she got that one it was a breeze. Right as she was pencilling in the last problem, Ava turned the seat around, “I’ve finished.”

“Finally.” Dani let all the papers go and the made a small pile next to her.

“Me too.” Sara said.

“Great.” Dani said. “So Ava,” Her voice adopted the slightest edge to it, “Tell me about yourself.”

Sara raised an eyebrow and glanced around nervously. “Am I being interviewed?” Ava snarked back.

“Oh come on, I don’t know you.” Dani protested. She looked between the two who were just giving her confused looks. 

“Ok.” Ava said, “What do you want to know?”

Dani hesitated and then grinned, “Where did you get that horrendous jacket.”

“Dani!” Sara called out as Ava tugged nervously at the fraying sleeves. Sara shot her an apologetic look. “We aren’t doing this, if you’re going to be rude about it.”

“Fine, what should we do?”

“Watch TV?” Sara asked.

“Excellent idea.” Dani said and stood up.

Sara looked at Ava who just gave a little nod, they trudged down the stairs, past Laurel’s shut door, and into the living room. Sara tossed Dani the remote, which landed on the couch next to her and she began to cycle through the channels.

“This is fine, right?” Sara asked softly to Ava.

Dani picked a channel, and Ava whispered back, “Yes, this is fine.”

The show wasn’t that interesting, and Sara kept glancing between Dani and Ava. Dani would occasionally voice a comment, but they were always meant with silence. Sara was annoyed and disappointed. She knew that it was stupid, to get two people who were very different and expect them to get along. She wasn’t sure what she was imaging when she had invited Ava home.

Not this, a stressful watching of some show, Ava tense, and Dani ready to snap. Sara wasn’t sure why that bugged her so much.

“Are you serious?”

Sara eyes snapped up to see Dani frowning at her, her arms crossed. “What?”

“You’re ignoring me now!” Dani huffed out.

“Um,” Sara glanced at Ava who just give her a look that said clearly, I have no idea what’s happening. “I’m just watching.”

“And what’s happening?” Dani demanded.

Sara glanced at the screen for a second, gulping nervously. Nothing on screen hinted at what the plot could be. “I got lost?” It sounded unconvincing even to herself.

“You know what,” Dani clicked off the TV, “I’m leaving.”

“Dani.” Sara said.

“No, it’s obvious you don’t want me around,” Dani stood up, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” On her way out, she glared at Ava, the door slammed behind her.

Sara sighed, “I’m sorry.”

“I should probably go.” Ava trailed off.

“No.” Sara said quickly, “It’s just, don’t let this end in total disaster.”

“Sara?” Laurel’s voice called down the stairs, followed by light footsteps, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Sara said, as Laurel poked her head into the room, “Dani had to leave.”

Laurel stared at her for several seconds, but accepted that with no difficulty, “Hi, Ava. We didn’t really talk much. I’m Sara’s sister.”

“Sara talks about you a lot.” Ava nodded.

Laurel beamed and Sara wanted to sink into the couch. “Does she?” Laurel laughed, “All good things I hope?”

“Most of the time.” Ava gave a small smile, “She says that you take too long in the bathroom, but I’ve never believed her.”

“Ava!” Sara interjected.

Laurel laughed, “She’s the true bathroom hog.”

“You know, I don’t need to listen to this.” She stood up, and walked towards the kitchen putting away the snacks. She didn’t do a great job hiding the smile on her face, it was just, Laurel would usually keep to herself if Sara had anything friends over.

The front door opened again as Sara walked back into the living room, everyone froze, and Sara hoped that it was not Dani changing her mind. No, her mom’s heels clicked across the floor, and she smiled when she saw the three girls.

“Hi girls,” She said as she put her bag down, “This must be Ava?” Ava nodded. “It is excellent to meet you.” She said as she walked over and placed a kiss on Laurel and Sara’s foreheads. Sara felt herself blush, and ducked her head, but Ava just had a soft smile on her face.

“I suppose I should leave.” Ava made to stand up.

“Oh nonsense,” Sara’s mom said, “You should stay for dinner, unless you’re expected home?”

“I don’t want to intrude.”

“You won’t be.” Sara’s mom smiled, “It would be lovely to have a guest.”

Ava looked between the three nodding faces and relented, “Then okay, my dad won’t mind.”

Sara looked at Ava for several seconds, but was looking away with the kind of concentration that she usually reserved for math. “Your father won’t be home until late unfortunately,” Sara’s mom said, “He got called to a homicide.”

Ava shot a confused look at Sara, and Sara whispered, “He’s a detective.” back.

Sara’s mom continued, “So if you girls could help out with dinner.”

“Of course.” Ava said and stood up and walked into the kitchen like she had been there a million times before. Laurel and Sara watched, impressed.

“She’s nice.” Laurel commented, “I’m glad you’re friends.”

Sara smiled, “Thanks, I’m glad too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you're coming back to this, thanks for waiting for the update! I got hit with an intense amount of writer's block for this chapter (and I'm not that happy with it, but it needed to be put out), so here you go. Hope you enjoy :)


	3. Sixth Grade, Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sixth Grade, Part III

Sara had been much too scared to invite Ava over again. Dani had been quite irritating at lunch and in math for a week, but then had settled down. Ava seemed to understand, she never mentioned it, and they went on to playing basketball. She never said anything different, or acted strangely.

Not like her parents. Not like Laurel.

They had calmed down now, a month or two had past, but they had constantly badgered her. Her mom and Laurel smiling and nodding at how polite she was and her dad lamenting that he had been unable to meet her.

The tentative peace that Sara had structured always seemed like it was about to come tumbling down though, and she began to worry that she might have to actually eat lunch somewhere else. Maybe wherever Ava was. Sara still hadn’t been able to figure it out, even with entering the lunch room together. The taller girl always seemed to slip away.

Not that she had really looked that hard recently. She figured if Ava wanted to be found, she would have been found already. Ava hadn’t been one to hide.

Except today. It was weird, Ava was never late, and the tardy bell had rung about 30 seconds ago and there was no Ava to be found. Sara jittered nervously in her seat, glancing at the door and then the clock.

Right before the last bell rang, the one to signal that you were actually late, the door swung open, and Ava rushed inside, wearing a blue fraying hoodie with the hood up over a beanie. Sara stared at her as she rushed towards her seat, but Ava didn’t look up from the ground. Not even after she sat down. Sara stared at her, about to whisper across the seats, but their teacher had began to take role and was watching everyone like a hawk. And had threatened Sara with another work detail if she spoke out of turn again.

“Miss Sharpe.” Mr. Aaron said once he got to her, “You know the policy, no hats in class.”

Ava tugged the beanie off, but managed to keep her hood on. Mr. Aaron looked like he was going to say something, but he actually liked Ava, and moved onto the next person on the roll sheet. It was an impressive move, and after several moments of staring at Ava and being unacknowledged, Sara turned back around to the front.

Mr. Aaron finished up role call and then began to start his lecture on Ancient Rome. It wasn’t a terrible class, history wasn’t her thing, but at least Rome had battles and armies. Ava just refused to even share a glance with her, even when Mr. Aaron made one of his terrible jokes.

The bell rung to signal dismissal, not that Mr. Aaron agreed, but he dismissed them and for a second Sara was sure that Ava was going to run ahead without her. Luckily, Ava was always terrible at packing up, usually the slowest and the last one out of class, and that didn’t change today.

Today, she seemed to be going extra slow, trying to get Sara to leave, but Sara had no qualms waiting. Ava was the one with the perfect attendance to ruin. “Are you going to talk to me?” Sara finally asked.

“What?” Ava said. “How are you?”

Sara rolled her eyes, “Dude, why are you refusing to look at me?”

Ava pulled on her backpack, and then stared straight at Sara. “Am I?”

“Ava.” Sara said and followed her out the door. “What’s up?”

Ava took several steps forward, seemingly intent on “not ignoring” Sara until she faltered and made a beeline towards the old, grungy bathroom that no one used unless it was an absolute emergency. Sara followed her, and as usual it was empty.

“Sorry.” Ava said, and then looked at the mirror.

“Come on, what is it?” Sara asked. “You can tell me.”

“Don’t laugh.”

“I won’t.” Sara said. “I promised.” She clasped her hands into fists so that her fingernails dug into her palms.

Ava took a deep breath and then took off her hood. Sara unclenched her fists, “Oh, wow.”

Ava avoided her eyes in the mirror and her hand reached up to touch her now, buzzed head. It was a bit longer on the top, military style, but the sides were just  but her long hair was all gone. “My dad decided we all needed haircuts. He just did them himself because that was easier.”

“Your brothers?”

“Yes.” Ava said, now looking down.

Sara nodded, it made a lot of sense, her clothes, most of which were probably hand-me-downs, were definitely boys. “I think it looks good.”

“Stop.” Ava quickly flicked up her hood.

“No, really,” Sara said, “I mean you could put your beanie on again if you want, Mr. Coswer won’t care, but you know that eventually you’re going to have to take it off sometime. And I don’t-”

“I look like a boy!” Ava said.

Sara patted her on the arm. “You look like you. Now come on, do you really want to ruin your attendance?”

Ava looked once more in the mirror, and then sighed and put her beanie back on and trudged out of the bathroom with Sara.

 

Sara was hopeful, so far Ava had hidden her hair, but she seemed to have forgotten it. They were at their last shared class. Mrs. Baxter, an older plump woman with greying wispy hair called the class to order. She went through the role, slowly, ignoring the two boys who were sword fighting with their pencils, and on Ava, barked out, “Miss Sharpe, I can’t see your face, take off that hood.”

Ava slowly took it off, and the class giggled. Penny in the back said, in a loud whisper that the whole class, but not a half deaf Mrs. Baxter, could hear, “Everyone, Ava’s a boy now.”

Sara turned around and glared at her, but Penny just smirked. Ava, tried to sink in her chair, but her height made it almost impossible.

“Hush, hush.” Mrs. Baxter said, looking vaguely overwhelmed at the sudden noise. The giggles petered out, but Ava was a bright red, and staring only at her folded hands.

“Ignore them.” Sara whispered at her. “They’re just a bunch of idiots.”

Ava blinked once in acknowledgement, but didn’t look up the entire period. Not even when Mrs. Baxter announced that they would be working in pairs for the final project of the year. “Now,” She said in her nasally voice, “I’m only going to give you a little bit of time in class, so you’ll have to work on this at home, with your partners. I’m going to hand around a sign-up sheet, please sign-up with your partner under what subject you are going to do.

“You will be giving a joint presentation on information you found in your textbook, and anything that you can find at the library. Presentations should last 5 minutes. Here’s the syllabus.” She sent another stack of paper around.

Ava just nudged Sara, and Sara took that as a cue that as usual, they would be working together. She also hoped that they would have a good subject. She wasn’t sure if there was one. She supposed one that Ava liked would be a good subject.

The paper got to them, and Sara handed it to Ava, who, in her freakishly neat handwriting wrote their names underneath “The Nitrogen Cycle” before Ava passed it on. That sounded, interesting, Sara assumed, at least more interesting than the one underneath that was the life cycle of a frog. They had done that in elementary school. She couldn’t remember much about the Nitrogen Cycle, except that it had to do with the soil.

Sara was reluctant to part ways at the end of the class, and lingered next to Ava. “I’ll be fine.” Ava said finally, giving her a soft look, “Don’t be late to your own class.”

“But-”

“Sara,” Ava gave her a little smile, the first since Mrs. Baxter had forced her to take off her hood, “Thank you. Now go to class.”

Sara opened her mouth to keep arguing, but then nodded at the look on Ava’s face. “Okay.” She gave her one last pat on the arm and then turned away. She gave a glance back at Ava, who just waved. 

“Wait!” Sara called and jogged back, her backpack thumping against her. “Are we going to meet to talk about our project?”

“It’s due in two weeks.” Ava said, “There’s plenty of time, Mrs. Baxter hasn’t even gone over all of it.”

“Are you sure? We could meet at my house after school.”

Ava shook her head and chuckled, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this excited about school.”

“Well, nitrogen is cool. Soil and stuff.”

Ava gave a full on laugh, “Look if it means that much to you, I can.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Ava confirmed. “We can talk about when we’ll meet and supplies I guess.”

“Cool! Meet you at the sign.”

“Meet you at the sign.”

 

“So,” Dani said once Sara took a seat next to her in math, “Ava, huh.”

“What about her?” Sara had a feeling she knew what was coming and looked through her backpack.

“Did she tell you why she decided to chop off all her hair?”

“We didn’t discuss reasoning.” Sara gritted her teeth.

“Hmm, just how she looks more like a boy than Joseph?”

“Dani.”

“What?” Dani chuckled, “It was a good joke.”

Joseph was a dancer, liked the color pink, and seemed to embrace insults that he was girly. He didn’t alter his appearance, but by Dani’s comparison than Sara was just as much like a boy as Ava was.

“Just, she’s my friend, okay.”

“Okay, okay.” Dani held out her hands, “But if you come to school with a tragically bad haircut too then I’m going to make fun of both of you.”

“Fair enough. But can you not make fun of her today?”

Dani shrugged, “When am I going to see her today? This is the last class and we’ve never accidentally run into her before?”

“She’s coming on the bus with us. We’re working on a project together.”

“Oh.” Dani said. “Well, have fun with that.”

“So you won’t?”

“I won’t make fun of her, jeez.”

“Thanks.”

 

“Hey.” Sara smiled at Ava. Ava gave a nod to her and a hesitant one to Dani. Dani’s eyes lingered on Ava’s head, but as promised, she didn’t say anything. “So, to the bus.”

“To the bus.” Ava agreed.

Laurel barely glanced up when they boarded, but then did a double take at Ava. “Ava!” She greeted, “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too.” Ava agreed.

“Nice hair.” Laurel smiled.

Ava blushed and Sara shot a look at Laurel who was entirely unapologetic. And it seemed sincere. Laurel wasn’t usually mean, but Sara shot her another look anyway. Laurel did not to bring it all up..

Sara let out a deep breath, when the bus finally rolled up to their stop, and bid goodbye to Dani, and then rolled into the house. Laurel disappeared up the stairs, as usual, and then Sara turned to Ava, “So.”

“So.” Ava nodded back.

“You’re usually the one in charge of this stuff.” Sara finally said after a long period of silence.

“Today, you insisted that we meet.” Ava reminded her.

“Do you have somewhere else to be?” Sara said sharper than she intended.

“Nowhere pressing.” Ava said, “It’s okay, if you wanted to just hang out, all you had to do was ask.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. I know last time was,” Ava trailed off and Sara nodded along. Last time was something. “But I do enjoy your company. I like having you as a friend.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“I like having you as a friend too.” Sara grinned. “So, I guess, we should do some homework, first though.”

Ava nodded, “You’re a good friend.”

They went up to Sara’s room, and finished the homework quickly, then Sara popped in a CD, and then ended up planning for the project. Just a little bit.

“Why do you have that poster?” Ava asked pointing at Justin Timberlake.

“Of JT?” Sara scoffed, “Come on, he’s hot.”

“If you say so.” Ava commented.

“You don’t think he’s cute?”

“I mean, I can understand it. I guess. But not really. Not enough to want to stare at it above my face.”

“Than who would you have?”

“No one.” Ava shrugged. “I like my ceiling the way it is just fine.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Okay, if you insist.”

“I’m serious!”

“Come on, pick someone, there has to be some dude. Don’t you have any posters in your room?”

“No.” Ava shrugged as Sara stared at her. “What, okay, fine, if I had to pick someone, I’d say Patrick Rafter.”

“The tennis player?”

“Yes.” Ava said, “Athletes are preferable, at least they have real skill.”

“You didn’t just say that.” Sara laughed. “JT can sing.”

“Sure, but I’d rather play sports than sing and dance.”

“Touché.”

“This is a good song though.”

Sara laughed, “You crack me up.” But she turned it up. Laurel bumped a few times on the wall, loud enough that Sara knew it was on purpose, but not so much that Ava seemed to notice it, but she waited until the song was over to turn it back down.

“Thanks.” Ava said.

“Anytime,” Sara smiled back, “Friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long, but life happens. I hope you enjoyed this one, the next chapter is going to wrap up sixth grade. Also, I'm not really familiar with Patrick Rafter (I'm younger that Ava and Sara are), but I looked up a dude who was "hot" around when I'm putting them in middle school (the late 90s) and he seemed like someone that Ava would be like, erm I guess if I had to pick a guy all the while knowing that is not interested in guys at all. Also, obviously I will be ignoring the backstory that Ava has in the show. Hope you guys enjoy :)


	4. Sixth Grade, Part IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sixth Grade, Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A character suffers a panic attack in this chapter

Laurel’s feet seemed to pound into the floor, loud enough that Sara stopped spooning cereal into her mouth and just watched as Laurel entered the kitchen and then sighed heavily as she began to rummage through all the cabinets. After several sighs, Sara rolled her eyes and finally asked, “Are you alright?”

“It’s stupid.” Laurel said, but she was spinning away from the counter and taking a seat across from Sara, “I shouldn’t be upset about it.”

“But you are.” Sara said.

“Yes, and, ugh.”

“What is it?”

“It’s just, Ollie and Tommy have this thing, and I’m not saying that I should be a part of it, but, sometimes I wish that they wouldn’t so blatantly exclude me.” Sara blinked a couple times as Laurel continued on, “Like they’re best friends, basically brothers, and part of that is that they’ve known each other forever, but they’re my best friends, so.”

“So you’re jealous?”

“No! Okay, maybe a little bit. It’s stupid.” Laurel laid her head on the table.

Sara stared for a second and began to eat her cereal again, “Maybe we should do something to get your mind off of it.”

“Really?”

“I mean, we’re actually sisters.”

“Yes.”

“And I’m assuming that you aren’t hanging out with them today.” Sara said.

“You are correct.”

“Then we should do something.”

“What?”

It was a good question, and Sara just munched on her cereal for a bit. Laurel wasn’t the most outdoorsy, sure they played outside when they were younger and all, but it was never her favorite, and the day wasn’t fantastic. It was the lovely part of spring where sometimes it was 70s out and other days it felt like winter. And neither of them could drive, which wasn’t new, but Sara was counting down the days that Laurel could drive probably more religiously than Laurel was. So that left things around the house.

“Watch a bunch of bad movies and eat too much junk food?” Sara finally suggested.

“Perfect.” Laurel said. “I’ll get out the collection and you can finish that.”

Sara finished quickly, and put it into the sink. Today was not about cleaning up after themselves. She was glad that she didn’t even have to be guilty about doing homework. Ava and her had long ago finished up the Nitrogen Cycle presentation that was due on Monday, and by association, Sara had finished the rest of her homework.

It was odd, Laurel somehow got all of her work done in a timely manner despite hanging out with Ollie and Tommy, and Sara only got her work done in a timely manner because she was hanging out with Ava.

Sara plopped down on the couch as Laurel put in the first movie. Laurel took a seat next to her and then tugged a blanket over their legs as they leaned into each other.

 

“And that’s when Tommy walked into the room!” Laurel said in between giggles.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Oh what was his face like?” Sara was full on laughing now, clutching her stomach that was beginning to hurt, mostly because of all the sugar she had consumed. Mostly.

“Oh I wish I had a picture of it, it was just betrayed and impressed all at once.”

“I can’t believe it.”

As they settled down, Laurel shrugged, “Just because I get good grades doesn’t mean I don’t ever break the rules.”

“You can say that again.” Sara said. “You’re just better at not getting caught.”

“Yeah, I think Ollie and Tommy know that getting caught doesn’t really matter for them.” Laurel said, her face pensive, “So usually they take any sort of fall.”

They were on their third movie, paused since they had to go to the bathroom, and then they hadn’t restarted it. Sara had seen it several times before, and they had ended up sharing ridiculous stories. It was nice, Sara hadn’t realized how much she had missed it.

Laurel and her were going into different directions, and they hadn’t really made time to actually hang out in a long time, not like this. Not in actually sharing things that were more than an anecdote.

“Do you ever feel guilty about it?” Sara asked.

“About them taking the fall?” Laurel asked and Sara nodded. “I did at first, I mean, it wasn’t fair, but they never had that stringent of consequences. I mean I’d be grounded a week, maybe even a month, on some of the stuff, but they’re pretty much always free the next day or so. And they’ve told me to not worry about it over and over again, so now I’m pretty much over it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I mean if I did something truly awful, against the law and they got arrested, than yes, I would feel guilty no matter what they told me, but most of the stuff is handled by their parents or whoever.”

“I can’t even imagine.” Sara said. Her mind drifted to Ollie and Tommy and the times she had interacted with them. It wasn’t a lot, she was never invited to hang out with them, but they seemed nice. Mostly. Her dad would always grumble when they were around, and Sara couldn’t figure out if he actually didn’t like them or was just being ridiculous.

“Sometimes it’s still really weird, when I go over and they have a literal butler, and stuff.” Laurel commented.

“It’s still crazy that you’re friends with them. Like, how did that even happen?”

“I ask myself the same question all the time.” Laurel laughed. “But what about you? How exactly did you meet Ava?”

Sara recounted the story of Ava punching the boys at the playground. “We didn’t really become friends though until we had all these classes together.” Sara said. She didn’t exactly want to explain to Laurel that they had only made it official a couple weeks ago. Laurel would just say it was dumb.

“She seems really nice, I mean, you know that, but I do like her.”

“You’ve barely interacted with her.” Sara deadpanned.

“So? I feel like I have a good instinct about her.”

“Okay, okay, whatever. I do really like her though.”

“And not many girls would chose to rock a haircut like that, but she really does.”

Ava’s hair had barely grown since the initial cut. She hadn’t hidden it anymore, but wore it with her head held high and staring down anyone who commented on it. Sara opened her mouth to explain that it wasn’t exactly Ava’s choice, but then closed it.

Explaining that would mean that she would have to explain more about the whole situation, which she didn’t understand. There had never been any mention of her mother, and occasional mentions of her father. Most of the stories Ava told would be about her brothers, none of whom were in Laurel’s grade, though one was just a year older. Sara wasn’t sure whether she should ask, or whether Ava would share, or whether it wasn’t important at all.

Ava wasn’t exactly someone who volunteered information, they never discussed things like crushes and boys, so Sara wasn’t sure whether that was a sign that they were not due for more serious discussions about family. She knew that Laurel would probably say something along the lines, “You don’t know until you ask.” or something equally unhelpful, and so Sara decided to nod, “Yeah, it looks really good on her.” She wasn’t lying, she did really like the short hair on Ava.

“Sometimes I want to cut my hair that short.” Laurel said.

“No!”

“Only in the morning, when I have to brush my hair out.”

“That’s just you being lazy.”

“Maybe.” Laurel laughed. “But I don’t think it would look that good on me.”

“Whatever you say.” Sara rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’d look great.”

 

“I can’t believe there’s only a week left until school is out.” Sara said and Ava murmured in agreement.

They were lying out on the grass, at the playground where they had first met, under the shade of tree. As usual, no one else was around.

“Really we should just be done with school right now.” Ava sighed.

“Why do you sound so annoyed?” Sara laughed.

Ava turned over onto her side, “We don’t even do anything in class anymore. It’s all end of year wrap-up.”

Sara grinned, “You are the only one I know who complains about how school is easy. Actually, I’m pretty sure that Laurel has.”

“Really?” Ava’s voice was slightly higher for a moment, “Is that so?”

“Why are you being weird?” Sara asked.

“I’m not being weird!”

“You are too!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!” Ava punctuated her statement with a sharp poke into Sara’s stomach and then she took off running.

“Hey!” Sara said and then got up after her. “You can’t win with violence.”

“Yes I can!”

Ava was easily ahead, her long, gangly legs allowed her to soar paces ahead of Sara. It was just lucky that there wasn’t that much space to go, and so Ava took a turn around the monkey bars, and Sara cut across. She leapt at Ava, and then tackled her into the tanbark.

“I always get you.” Sara said.

“I can beat you in any running race.” Ava grumbled, but she was smiling.

“Maybe so.” Sara said, “But you don’t have my agility.”

They stood up and then began to brush the tanbark off of their clothes. “Oh no.” Sara looked up and watched as Ava’s face paled.

“What is it?” Sara asked.

“I got a hole in my shirt.”

The shirt Ava had on today was a large white one, ratty to the point that Sara was honestly surprised that the hole that Ava was staring at, one not much bigger than the tip of her pinky, was the only one there was. “Hey,” Sara said gently, “It’s going to be okay.”

“It’s not, it’s really not,” Ava began to breathe rapidly, “My dad’s going to kill me.”

“He won’t kill you over one shirt.” Sara hoped. She hadn’t actually met Ava’s dad.

“Yes, he-” Ava was getting rapidly whiter, her breathes coming out in short, strangled bursts.

“Breathe.” Sara said several times. “It’s okay, breathe.”

Ava started to look better, letting out deep breaths, and then nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize for anything. If anything it’s my fault, I’m the one who tackled you.” Sara said and examined the hole in the shirt. Her best guess was that it was formed from a piece of tanbark going through the thin cotton.

“No, I should have, I don’t know.”

“Nothing, it’s an old shirt.” Sara said as she looked back up at Ava who was giving her a small smile. Ava’s eyes were warm and they stared at each other for a couple seconds. Ava’s eyes were an incredible blue. Ava blinked, and Sara stepped back fractionally, “I can let you have one of mine, it might be a little small.”

“It’s okay, I just.” Ava let out another breath and then looked around a bit. “I suppose you’ve figured out that my family is not exactly well-off.” Sara nodded. “My, my mom,” Ava looked down and played with the hem of her shirt, “Well, she died when I was pretty little.”

“Ava-”

“No,” Ava said, “I mean yeah, it sucks, but it’s not like you could do anything about it, or you even knew me back then. I mean, I barely remember her. So, yeah, my dad works at the steel mill, so we’re okay, but not, you know, not good. So losing clothes like this,” Ava shrugged.

“Hey,” Sara said and then gently rubbed Ava’s back, “I get it, I mean, I don’t, I’m not in the situation that you’re in or anything, but it’s okay?”

Ava laughed, “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being you.” Ava said, “I mean, this doesn’t change anything?”

“No.” Sara said, “It doesn’t.”

“Good.”

 

Sara could see Ava’s point, but only a little bit. It was nice to be in class and have it as a wrap-up. All of the teachers seemed to look at the rapidly distracted students and give up, at least a little bit.

Each teacher, except Mr. Coswer, had given them a little speech about being a sixth grader and surviving the first year of middle school. Sara and Ava had always shared a look before every single one of them and rolled their eyes.

But today was their last day of school as six graders. Tomorrow Laurel would graduate. It was a half-day of school and each class was letting them sign yearbooks instead of do anything. Sara and Ava had decided to play paper football instead. They’d signed each others yearbooks already, and the game was interrupted every now and then as someone asked one of them to sign. (Sara decided not to think too much about why it was usually her that they asked).

“I get it.” Sara said as Ava scored again.

“What?”

“The whole school thing.”

“The purpose of going to school?” Ava chuckled.

“No.” Sara rolled her eyes, “It’s pretty dumb how we don’t really have it the last week.”

“Sara Lance! Never did I think I’d see the day.”

“Shut up.” Sara said, “You’ve rubbed off on me. I’m not sure if I like it.”

“Glad that I’ve contributed to something.” Ava smirked. “Someone needs to curb your lawlessness.”

Sara rolled her eyes, biting her lip to stop from telling just how much Ava has contributed. She hadn’t won any Top Ten Percent awards (except in P.E. but she didn’t really count that), not like Ava. Top Ten Percent were given to the top ten percent, so usually about 3 people in a class, to the class as a way to recognize the best students. Sara was sure that she had gotten close, and she was proud enough of that. She wasn’t sure she was ready to share that with anyone besides herself yet.

Ava of course had gotten one in every class that they had together. And most likely the ones that they didn’t.

Ava stared at her, her eyes shining with mirth, “You know,” her tone got serious suddenly, “You’ve rubbed off on me too.”

Sara nodded several times, “Yeah.” Unsure how to proceed, she just flicked the paper football at Ava. It missed and whacked Ava on the shoulder, and they both descended into giggles.

 

Their last shared class, Science, had them both lingering in the hallway before they had to go their separate ways. Neither of them seemed to want to make the first move. Sara glanced at the clock. If they stood outside here for much longer Ava was going to ruin her perfect attendance on her last day (though the teacher might not count it).

“So,” Sara started, “We’ll hang out this summer.”

“Of course.” Ava nodded.

“I’m playing soccer,” Sara said, “You should try out.”

“I don’t know.” Ava shrugged.

“Well think about it, but we can always meet up where we first meant.”

“Yes.”

“So, I’m going to be hanging out there.” Sara said. They looked at each other for a couple more moments, and then took small steps away. “Wait!” Sara said and then began to rummage through her backpack.

“What?” Ava said.

“Here’s my home phone number.” Sara said as she began to write on Ava’s arm. “Call me. I mean, hopefully Laurel won’t be using the phone or anything, but we can always try to coordinate.”

“Oh.” Ava said and as Sara looked up, Ava broke out into a huge grin. “Sounds good.”

“Okay, have fun in your last two classes!” Sara said as they backed away.

“It will be hard without you.” Ava shot back.

They went to their classes with matching grins.

 

The high school field was unbearably hot. Sara glanced over at her parents, who were both fanning themselves with the programs. They had sat through two speeches already, a song, and Sara was already devising ways to get out of her own graduation.

It was just so boring.

The speeches had been pretty much the same, with two kids puffed up with arrogance, basically calling middle school the best moments of their life and how it would prepare them for the future. Sara hadn’t bothered hiding a snort, getting just an amused smile from her dad. The song was okay, she supposed for a couple of middle schoolers, she was just confused on why it was happening.

Principal Wethers came up to the microphone, “We will now commence with handing out the diplomas.” Sara rolled her eyes again, they had graduated 8th grade. They didn’t get real diplomas.

“Samuel Aarons.” A lanky blonde kid came up the ramp, and Sara completely tuned out. L wasn’t that far into the alphabet, but it was going to take forever.

Her thoughts drifted to the summer. It would be busy with soccer, she hoped to get onto one of the actual competitive teams this year, and was pretty sure she had a good shot. And there would be Ava. She would actually race with her if they were ever at the pool, unlike Dani and the others.

Her dad nudged her and she blinked several times, Laurel was standing at the bottom of the ramp. “Laurel Lance.” Principal Wethers called.

They all stood up and cheered, Laurel found them in the crowd and blushed, but waved the diploma thing up as their mom took pictures. It was over after five seconds.

“Are you going to make me do this?” Sara asked her dad.

“Yes.” He smiled.

“Is there anyway I can get out of it?”

“No.” He shook his head.

Sara gave out a long sigh, and then crossed her arms and wished that she had thought to bring a water bottle.

Once every name was finally called and Principal Wethers made a short, boring speech, Sara almost tore out of there. Of course, she just went to were Laurel was standing with several of her friends, and not completely out of the school and into their lovely air conditioned home.

“Hey Sara!” Laurel called.

“Hey.” Sara said and then hugged her. Laurel beamed down, “Congratulations!”

“Thank you.” Laurel said. “What are you going to do now that I won’t be at the same school as you?”

“The same thing I did the previous times. Not even notice.”

Laurel laughed. “But seriously, I’m going to miss going on the same bus as you. And you know that you can still go to me about anything.”

“Yes.”

“And that I love you.”

“I love you too, and you’re not leaving or anything, you’re going to high school.”

“Yes.” Laurel beamed. “I’ll miss you.”

“If you say so.” Sara said, but wrapped Laurel into another hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this wraps up sixth grade! And we get some of Ava's backstory! Hope you like the direction that I'm heading. Thanks for reading :)


	5. Seventh Grade, Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Grade, Part I

Sara stared down Ava and cocked an eyebrow. Ava responded with a smirk.

“3, 2, 1, Go!” They counted down together and then both pushed off the wall. Sara did her best freestyle, it was pretty good all things considered, and swung her arms and kicked her legs until she pounded into the wall at the other end. She looked up and saw Ava smirking at her. Again.

“Oh come on!” Sara said. “I had you.”

“I really thought this was going to be more competitive.” Ava shrugged.

Ava was a surprisingly good swimmer. No, she was a fantastic swimmer. Sara was good, she’d done two years of swim team (before she traded flippers for cleats), but Ava was just better. “You can’t beat me everytime.” Sara grumbled.

“That’s not what the numbers say.”

“Where did you get so good?”

“I did swim team for a bit,” Ava shrugged, “And then my brothers and I spent a lot of summers at the pool.”

“Yeah?”

“They would always beat me, so I had to figure out how to get good.” Ava said.

“You figure it out?” Sara asked.

“I was close the last time we all raced, I’m pretty sure I could beat them now.” Ava shrugged. “They’ve gotten fat and slow in their old age.”

Sara laughed. Two of Ava’s brothers currently played basketball at the high school, and had a very similar build as Ava. Tall and skinny. “Oh sure.”

“We don’t swim that much anymore.” Ava said. “So I’m actually pretty confident. Basketball doesn’t exactly translate to swimming.”

“I suppose that’s true. They are still taller than you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you always blame losing on your height.”

They floated on their backs and squinted up at the cloudless sky. “If you weren’t a giant, you’d understand.” Sara said.

Ava just laughed and splashed Sara, which turned into an all out war, that had the other people at the pool staring and giving them disapproving looks. It ended once Sara dove under the water and tackled Ava.

The good thing about tall people? They were easy to take down.

“Okay, okay.” Ava said holding up her hands in mock surrender.

“That’ll teach you.”

They floated some more, ignoring the look and loud tsks of the young mom who was dragging her kid in water wings around.

“Tomorrow, you wanna help me practice soccer?” Sara asked.

Ava had been noncommittal about the potential for her trying out, and Sara was half convinced it was because she was horrible. The last two times Sara had asked, Ava had a babysitting gig.

“Ok.”

“Ok?” Sara was genuinely shocked.

“Yes.” Ava rolled her eyes.

“Cool. Meet at my house tomorrow? Then we can go to the field?” Sara bobbed in the water excitedly.

“Sounds good.”

 

“Sorry, sorry.” Sara swung open the door. Ava had knocked five minutes ago, and Sara was half-convinced that she would have left. But Ava was on the porch, wearing a faded blue t-shirt and a pair of soccer shorts that reached just above her knee. “Here, come in.” Sara said, “Laurel had me basically trapped.”

“Oh?” Ava said. “She’s here?”

“I’m just leaving.” Laurel said as she came down the stairs, dressed in a white sundress. “Hi Ava.”

“Hi.” Ava awkwardly waved.

Sara shot her a confused look and Ava shrugged back, her cheeks reddening. “Well, Ollie’s here to pick me up,” Laurel continued as a town car pulled into the driveway, “Good luck with soccer.”

“Ok.” Sara said as Laurel went out the door. “So, do you have a water bottle?”

“No.” Ava said carefully.

“That’s cool, we have a vast collection.” Sara walked into the kitchen, and pulled two out and filled them. “Let me grab my soccer bag and then we’ll be good to go.”

“Oh, should I have brought cleats?” Ava said.

“Next time.” Sara handed Ava the water bottles and then ran to get her bag. “Okay.” Sara said with a deep breath, “Let’s go.” She locked the doors behind them and then turned back to Ava, “Cause there’s going to be a next time?”

Ava gave a noncommittal shrug, but smiled as Sara gave her a light push. “Okay, okay.” Ava said, “Yes, there will be a next time.”

“Good, because I need to practice a lot before tryouts.”

“I don’t think you could get enough practice.”

“Ava!” Sara was laughing though. Ava had done her best to keep a straight face, but broke on the last word. They giggled as they made their way to the park, and Sara crossed her fingers that there would be an open goal. If she wanted to be the best forward in Starling City she needed to have the best shot. Hopefully Ava was a half-decent goalie.

She was in luck today. Only about a quarter of the fields were being used and it was close enough to soccer season that the goals were set-up. Sara took out her ball and passed it to Ava. They passed for a bit and then Sara set up next to the goal.

“I wanna practice my shots first, can you be goalie?”

“Sure.” Ava shrugged and set up in goal. “I’m normally a defender, so I suppose this is close enough.”

“With your height, you’d be a fantastic goalie.” Sara said as she dribbled the ball a bit out of the penalty box.

“It’s too boring.” Ava said as she moved a bit on the line. “Need some more action, than standing for most of the game.”

“Okay.” Sara nodded and then took off towards the goal. Ava crept up and Sara tried to do a chip, but instead sent in straight at Ava’s stomach.

“Oof.” She said as she and the ball collided. “Well, you certainly have power.” Ava rolled the ball back to her.

“Sorry.”

“No worries, I’ve volunteered.”

The first several more attempts were rough. It obvious that Sara hadn’t touched a ball in a while, and Ava saved each one with ease. She got it back soon enough, her brain placing her in a game, and the first one she scored had her running around the goal box with her arms outstretched.

“GOAALLLL!”

Needless to say, Ava threw the ball a bit hard and off, so that Sara had to run a bit farther to get it. The next one Ava blocked.

They repeated this for a solid fifteen minutes, by the time which Sara was feeling pretty confident about her goal scoring abilities.

“You wanna change it up?”

“You want me to score on you?”

“No.” Sara rolled her eyes. “You said you’re a defender, you wanna do a little one on one?”

“Your loss.” Ava shrugged grinning, “But that sounds good.”

The used the penalty box as a field, with their water bottles on one end and sweatshirts on the other marking small goals. Sara let Ava have it good, and Ava exploded past her. For a second Sara was extremely worried that Ava was going to get an easy goal to start it off, but when Ava kicked it at the goal it lacked the finesse that Sara had been practicing and went wide.

They were evenly matched. Ava was a really good defender, but her offense was lacking in the same way that Sara’s defense was. They were both passable, soccer required a certain amount of playing both sides, but in the same way that Ava lacked the finesse in shooting, Sara lacked the same ability Ava had with tackles.

It was extremely fun, if in the end, it ended with Ava shoving Sara to the ground and dribbling into the goal for her goal. They were both laughing, sweaty, and exhausted. At some point, it had entered evening, and as their chests heaved, they began to fill the rapidly setting in chill.

“Please try out.” Sara said from her position on the ground. The energy she had moments earlier was evaporated.

Ava dribbled the ball back, and then held a hand out for Sara. Sara took it and wrenched Ava down.

They both descended into laughs again, and then gave up and lay on their backs. “I think I will.” Ava settled on.

“Really?”

“I’d forgotten how much fun it was.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean we had fun in P.E. and stuff, but going hard against one person and having to watch out for fifteen more is nothing like going all out with no worries. And with a team.” Ava grinned at the thought.

“Oh, I really hope that we’re on the same team.” Sara said.

“That would be amazing.” Ava said, “Though I wouldn’t be opposed to taking you down a peg or two by stopping every one of your goal attempts.”

“I got three past you tonight.”

“It’s been a while.”

Sara snorted. “Whatever you say.”

“Am I not the smarter one?”

“With better grades, sure. Smarter, that’s debatable.”

Ava gave her a light push on the shoulder, and they stayed on their backs, perfectly content.

 

“You ready?”

Sara looked at her dad, and nodded slowly. They were in the parking lot of the soccer field, and all the excitement of the earlier weeks had faded into butterflies in her stomach. She clutched her soccer bag to her chest and stared at where a couple girls had already started to warm up.

“You’re going to do great, sweetheart.” He said. “You want me to watch?”

“Please don’t.” The thought made her want to throw up.

“Okay, then, I’ll be here to pick you up. Now, go, you and Ava had prepared a lot, you’re going to be the best one out there.”

“Okay.” Sara let out a breath. “Okay.”

She tentatively opening the door, the warm air rushed into the air conditioned car, and took a step out. She could do this. She stepped out of the car and then waved back at her dad, who took that as his cue to drive away.

She could do this.

She walked up to the table and signed in, receiving her pinny and throwing it on over her shirt. After a quick look around, she realized Ava wasn’t there yet, and instead started passing with a girl she vaguely recognized from last year.

The field began to fill up, and Sara got more and more nervous, but this time because Ava still wasn’t there. She missed an easy pass, and hoped that none of the coaches were watching yet. A glance at them revealed that they were in a mini huddle, and Sara let out a breath of relief. The girl passed it back to her and before it reached her a blur appeared and took it.

“Hey!” Sara yelled.

Ava grinned back at her and passed her the ball, “Watch yourself.”

Sara rolled her eyes, but the knot in her stomach loosened. She watched briefly as Ava went over to some others, and began some warm ups. The whistle sounded shortly, and they all made their way to one end of the field.

Coach Mary stood with a clipboard and arms crossed, waiting with a dower expression for all of them to circle up. She was the competitive coach, and Sara briefly prayed that she would be chosen. There was some tough competition, every forward from last year’s competitive team was still there.

“Allright girls,” She barked out, “We’re going to be doing some drills and then dividing up in some groups. Those groups will do some playing together and then we will have some full field scrimmages. Now please, would you all divide up by your pinny color.

Sara glanced down to see that she was red, and walked over to where they were gathering. She looked for Ava and saw she was blue. She wasn’t sure if she was excited to play against her in a real setting, or disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to play together.

“So,” Coach Blake began. He would be the red leader. He was pretty good, at least as far as Sara was able to tell, she’d never played under him, but her friends who had all liked him. “We are going to be starting with some dribbling drills, and then we will do a speed test, after that, some passing drills, and then we will do a small scrimmage, and finish with a big scrimmage. Everyone ready? Ok, let’s go.”

They all hustled to where a series of flags and cones were set up, and took the balls. Coach Blake explained the drill, which was fairly straightforward. They each go through the flags as fast as they could, without the ball first, and then with the ball.

They made a line and went through one by one. The coaches who weren’t in charge of a group, milled around on the field, but most of them were watching the groups that were in a small scrimmage or doing passing drills.

Coach Blake marked down the times and notes on every player, and once they were finished with that, moved onto another one that had them line up on corners of a box, with one player dribbling ten times before getting out of the circle and letting someone else go.

They did this for a while, and Sara could feel the eyes of some of the other coaches watch them. She didn’t mess up in either of the drills though, all the practice was making them seem almost easy, and when the whistle blew, was confident that she definitely hadn’t blown her chances.

She was also pretty sure that she was one of the fastest in her entire group.

They moved to the passing drills next, where they cycled through some basic movements, and then did some one-touch and two-touch passes. She was only really off on one of them, which had her wince, but only one person in her group didn’t mess up, so she was feeling fine.

After that they moved on to the speed drills, which included a flat sprint and a couple agility things (including ladder steps and a cross drill). They were all breathing hard afterward, and as Sara bent at her waist, she wished that Ava and her had done some kind of speed training. She wasn’t sure where they would have started, but anything would have been better than this.

They finally moved on to the small scrimmage, half of the reds formed one side (and took off their pinnys), and they played against each other. During signing up for tryouts, they had each indicated the position they wanted to play, so the teams were divided up so they would be even.

This was more her speed. As much fun as drills were, they were nothing compared to real soccer, even if it was on a smaller scale. She got one goal, but other than that, had no real opportunity. One of their midfielders was extremely weak, it was obvious this was her first year ever playing soccer, and the other team got the ball from her easily five times.

Sara ended up playing more defensively than she wanted to. She wanted to prove that she was one of the best forwards on the pitch, but that meant knowing when to play up and when to play back. The other side still was ahead when the final whistle blew, but it wasn’t anything that was too embarrassing.

Coach Blake had the other side replace their pinnies and then they gathered with the rest of the colors in the center of the pitch.

Coach Mary stood in the middle and began, “We’re going to do a full scrimmage now. Each color will play against one other. First up, we have green and yellow.”

They stayed on, while the rest of them trotted to the side and let the Coaches figure out all the details.

“How’s yours going?” Ava asked.

Sara grinned, this meant they would get to play against each other. “It’s going pretty good, I believe, will be better once we wipe the floor with you.”

Ava laughed, “You may try.”

“We’ll do more than try.” Sara said, “I’m going to play right forward.”

“Oh.” Ava said, “That’s good because I’m going to play left back.”

“Interesting.”

They fell in silence as the other scrimmage started. Sara picked out all the forwards and tried to figure out who her real competition was. Two were on the competitive last year, and they looked just as good if not better. One was hardly worth mentioning, obviously had no chance for true competitive play. The others, Sara was pretty sure that she was better than them, but of course, Coach Mary could have a different eye for talent. But, Sara internally winced as one girl missed an easy pass, so probably not.

The game was fun to watch, but the whole time Sara was itching to go in. One of the girls on competitive scored a goal, which was fun, but not long after, the whistle sounded and everyone rotated.

Even though they had been working on the same field all day, it felt different to have all the cones and flags removed and be playing a real match. Sara hopped in place a little bit, and blue started. The ball went down, and Sara hovered up, aware that Ava was watching her.

Ava was one of the better defenders on the field. The ball got real close to the red goal, but the stopper booted it out, and Sara was running down the field. Pass. Pass, not to her, and then stolen, back to red. Sara frowned, but moved back, and intercepted it.

A quick glance up showed that the other two forwards weren’t up, and so Sara took down the line as fast as she could. Hopefully someone could get in the middle, or she would have to try to make a hard line. She was twenty feet away from the endline when all the sudden, as she tapped the ball, she seemed to fly upwards and was on her back, staring at the sky.

She blinked several times in shock, and then Ava’s worried face stared at her.

“I’m okay.” Sara bit out, and took Ava’s offered hand up.

The coaches all looked at her in worry, but she waved it off. It was a clean tackle, just with the speed she was going, and the fact that they hit the ball at the same time (and that Sara was a good couple inches shorter), really didn’t put the odds in her favor. Her team was taking the throw in, and she moved to the middle.

One of the blues headbutted it down the field, and they all spread out, Sara shaking the last of her jitters from the fall out.

That was the only good opportunity. She got a couple passes in, but their midfield couldn’t get it out, and Sara found herself playing farther and farther back. Blue got a goal, an easy one when the pe goalkeeper was in the complete wrong place, and Sara sighed as they made their way back to starting positions.

No sooner had the right forward taken the second touch, when their forward easily stole it and almost made it all the way down the field. The ball went back and forth a few times, but soon enough the whistle ended and Sara had to bite her tongue to keep from complaining. Hopefully the coaches would be impressed by her positioning.

“Okay everyone, calls will start to go out tomorrow and finish out until the rest of the week.” Coach Mary said. “Good work out there.”

There were some murmurs of agreement, and then it broke off, as they returned their pinnies, and made their way to the parking lot.

“Sorry back there.” Ava said.

“It was a clean tackle.” Sara shrugged. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Yeah, but.” Ava trailed off.

“Don’t feel bad, look do you want a ride, my dad’s just over there.”

“Oh I’m good, I have my bike.”

“Then, see you soon, you’ll have to let me know when you get your call.”

“You too!”

They waved and then Sara slid into the car.

“Was that Ava?”

“Yes.”

“I missed her again?” Her dad complained.

“Dad.” Sara rolled her eyes. He had kept complaining that he was always gone when Ava was around.

“So, how was tryouts?”

“Pretty good.” Sara shrugged.

“Only pretty good.” He nodded. “You did your best?”

“Obviously.”

“Than that’s all that matters. If the coaches don’t see it it’s on them.”

“Thanks dad.”

“You want some ice cream?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you just did a bunch of exercise and we’ve got a while until dinner.”

“Then yes.”

They smiled at each other as he pulled out of the parking lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I promise that this story isn't going to turn into a complete sports story, but when I looked back at my summers growing up, they were mostly consumed by playing sports. So yeah, sorry about all the soccer, there's going to be more, but I'm going to balance it with some other stuff too.
> 
> Also, it's been a long time since I've played organized soccer, so if you're in the middle of that and see anything that is glaringly obvious, than please let me know. (Or if you just want to give me tips on stuff that I shouldn't have forgotten). I'm zipzin on tumblr.


	6. Seventh Grade, Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Grade, Part II

Sara waited a whole day, nervously pacing up and down the hallway that she made her entire family nuts, even if none of them had to nerve to actually throw her outside. Not yet anyway. The phone rang a total of three times. 

Twice for her mom, and once for Laurel. Sara had answered the first two calls, but after that had been too nervous. She told herself over and over again that she was being stupid, that there was nothing she could do now, but that didn’t get rid of the butterflies in her stomach.

By some miraculous feat in nonverbal communication, Ava and her had both not reached out to one another yet. Sara wanted, and Ava apparently too, to wait to see what team they got onto first. And so, Sara was sitting on the couch, staring at the comics in the newspaper and only really listening for the phone to ring.

“You’ll get on a team.” Her dad said and sat next to her, balancing a plate in one hand and a coffee mug in the other

“I know.” Sara sighed. “I’m better than most of the people there. It’s just a matter of which one.”

“Do you think that you’ll and Ava will be on the same team?”

“I hope so.”

“Then I’ll get to meet her?”

Sara rolled her eyes, “It’s not my fault that every time she’s been over you’ve been out.”

“I’m not out that often.” He shrugged as he nibbled on his toast. The sat in silence as he began to eat, “Do you really think?” He asked in between bites, “That they’re going to call this early in the morning?”

It was 7:30 and the earliest that Sara had ever voluntarily woken up. Let alone the earliest she had ever been up in the summer. “No, but I couldn’t really sleep”

“Oh kiddo.”

Sara shrugged, “I know the call will come today.”

“It better.” He mumbled under his breath.

“Dad!”

“What? If you keep pacing up and down the house and muttering under your breath than we have another problem to deal with.”

“Haha very funny.”

“Who said I was joking?” He replied but hid a smile behind his coffee cup.

She slugged him in the arm, and he pretended to wince, but they grinned at each other before her went back to eating and looking at the newspaper in front of him.

The night had been restless, but Sara hadn’t wanted to lay in bed anymore. So here she was exhausted lying on the couch. She turned the TV on low volume and tried to pay attention to the show. Her mind drifted off, thinking about soccer, the chance of playing with Ava, and winning the championship. She barely registered her dad kissing her forehead and saying goodbye, her mind instead delving into the fact that there was probably zero chance that she was going to be on the competitive team. They would have called by now.

At some point Laurel joined her, an early riser even in the summer, and snuggled against her. “How you doing?”

“Not you too.” Sara huffed.

Laurel smiled, “Do we need to talk about something else?”

“Anything else. Please.”

Laurel nodded and then launched into a story about Ollie’s sister Thea, who was just past being a toddler, and in Ollie and Tommy’s words, “finally interesting.” Laurel had rolled her eyes, and mumbled something along the lines of “boys,” but launched into several stories that made there little doubt that Thea didn’t have Ollie and Tommy wrapped around her finger.

“You’re invited to the Queen’s pool tomorrow.” Laurel said, “If you aren’t busy taking over the soccer world.”

“I thought the point of this story was to take my mind off of my lack of taking over the soccer world.”

“Shhh, you can’t be discouraged because of one day.”

“I’m just being logical.” Sara said, “I thought you would be proud.”

Laurel just hugged her harder, “But really, Ollie and Tommy both want you to come over at some point, apparently I talk about you too much. So, if you’re free.”

Sara contemplated the offer, but gave a shrug. “Maybe. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

“Perf-”

Laurel was interrupted by the phone ringing, and the sisters just stared at each other for a moment.

“Go on.” Laurel said, “Answer it!”

Sara sprang from the couch with a speed that was only rivaled by her tryouts and bounded to the phone. She answered with a breathless, “Hello?”

“Hi, yes, this is Coach Blake, is Sara there?”

“Yes, speaking.”

“Oh excellent.” He gave a small chuckle, “Well, Sara first thank you for trying out, I wanted to say congratulations, and would like to offer you a spot on my team.”

“Yes.” Sara barely waited him to finish.

“Glad to hear it. We will have a meeting next Thursday at the clubhouse at 7, please bring one of your parents.”

“Okay.”

“Do you have any questions for me?”

Sara’s mind was frozen, and it took her some time before she got out, “Yes, who else is on the team?”

“Oh right,” He began to list of names, and Sara felt her heart sink with each one. She knew most of them, or at least knew of most of them, but she desperately wanted Ava. “And Ava Sharpe.”

“Ava?”

“Yes.” He sounded slightly hesitant.

“Cool! Thanks so much! See you Thursday.”

“Thursday it is.”

Sara hung up the phone and then gave a holler. Laurel wandered in, “So?”

“I’m not on competitive, but I am on a team with Ava.”

“Congratulations!” Laurel pulled her into a hug. “I knew you could do it.”

“Okay, sure, I sorta did it.” Sara rolled her eyes.

“You’re still on a team, and playing with Ava will be more fun than a competitive team by yourself.”

Sara bit her lip to keep from saying anything else. “I’m going to call Ava.”

“Okay. Tell her congratulations for me.”

Sara nodded and then punched in the number that she had already memorized, it was answered after half a ring. “Hello?” Came Ava’s voice.

“It’s just me.” Sara said. “You’ve been called yet?”

“No.” Ava sighed.

“You will be.” Sara said, pinching her nails into her palm to keep most of the excitement out of her voice.

“I’m assuming that you have.”

“Yes, just now.” Sara said, “I’m on Coach Blake’s team.”

“Nice!” Ava said. They sat on the line in silence for a bit, “I want to keep talking, but the phone.”

“Right.”

“You could come over?”

“Really?” Sara asked. Ava had never really made any gesture to have Sara go to her house or meet her family at all.

“Yeah, here I’ll give you directions.”

Sara nodded, and then Ava gave her directions, then made Sara repeat them back four times before she let her hang up. “I’m going to Ava’s!” She called.

“Okay.” Laurel yelled back. “See you later.”

“See you!” Sara called and then flung the door shut behind her.

She wasn’t going to admit to Ava (or anyone), that it had been necessary for Sara to repeat the directions four times. The directions became sort of like a mantra, and when she finally turned on the right street, she was a little bit out of breath from running.

She stood in front of the right address, staring at the number at the curb for several moments to make sure.

The yard was between overgrown and dead, the grass half brown and half dirt. A lone tree stood in the corner, one side missing all of its branches. There were several bushes, the kind that were usually cut into a long rectangle, but was spread out along the walkway with no real organization.

The house itself was a small split level. The house was blue, or at least, at the parts were dirt had washed away from rain it was, the rest was faintly blue with a heavy layer of brown. The paint was old, cracked around windows and faded from the spots that were in the sun.

Sara walked up the cracked walkway, and then knocked on the door three times and after only a moment it swung open..

“Hi.” Sara said brightly.

“Hi.” Ava said softly and then stood aside to let Sara in.

The house was dark and had piles of things everywhere. There were shoes kicked off near the door, piles of papers scattered on almost every surface, some clothes in the corner, and a leaning stack of books on the floor. Sara barely got a look before Ava tugged her down the hall, “We can hang out in my room.”

Ava’s room was the antithesis to rest of the house. It was painted a pale pink, and the curtains were thrown open to let light stream through. The furniture was a strange mix of mismatched colors and sizes, and the walls decorated in posters of various athletes.

“So.” Ava said, “Coach Blake?”

“Yeah, I mean I figured I wasn’t going to be on competitive since I didn’t get a call yesterday.” Sara said and Ava nodded. “But I’m happy with Blake. Everyone I know whose had him has liked him, and his team went like three rounds through the playoffs last year, so he’s not a horrible coach.”

“I wonder who I’m going to get.”

Sara bit her lip to keep from bursting. “I’m sure it will be someone good.”

“I hope so. Just not Coach Greve.”

“Oh jeez, yeah.” Sara rolled her eyes.

Coach Greve was the “hot” coach. Sara privately thought that no matter how pretty he was, the inability to understand the fundamentals of soccer made anyone unattractive. How he was still a coach was beyond her comprehension, but so far, besides her first year of soccer, she never had the displeasure to be “coached” by him again. She was pretty sure that they had an unspoken mutual agreement to never let it happen after the horror of that season.

“I’m sure you won’t get stuck with him.” Sara said.

“I may have to quit if I do.”

“Don’t joke about that.”

There was a faint ringing, and they looked at each other, before Ava jumped up and raced down the stairs towards the phone, Sara following closely behind. She answered with a swift, “Hello.”

Sara watched as Ava’s smile got bigger and bigger, at one point her eyes widened and she shot a look at Sara, but she answered the same questions that Sara had, and then hung up and hugged Sara. “You sneak!”

“Hey, I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“Thank you.” Ava said. “Even if I’m a little mad at you, I’m mostly just excited.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Ava released Sara and stared at her beaming.

They considered going out and playing, but it was so hot, that staying inside, even if Ava’s house wasn’t air conditioned, was much better. They discussed everything they could about the team, sharing the little they knew about the other girls. Ava’s brothers were in and out, nodding at Sara, but barely paying them any mind, and Sara tried not to gawk at how tall they were.

She thought that Ava was tall, but they must have had at least a foot on her.

The door slammed shut, and they both realized that it had gotten dark out. A huge man lumbered into the kitchen where they were sitting. He had the build of someone who used to be muscular, but most of the muscle had turned into fat. He was sweating, a faint sheen of dirt and moisture on his forehead, and large bags under his eyes.

“Hey dad.” Ava called. He looked up, his eyes finding the two girls and looking back and forth between them. “This is Sara.” Ava introduced.

“Hello, I’m Mr. Sharpe.” He gave a small, tired wave.

Sara waved back, watching him closely. It seemed that despite his size, a good wind could blow him over. “I got onto a soccer team.” Ava said. “Sara’s on it too.”

“That’s great.” A very small smile broke onto his features. “I’m going to shower, and then we can figure out dinner. Sara, you’re welcome to stay.”

“Thank you, but I should be getting home.” Sara said standing suddenly.

“Nice meeting you.”

“You too.”

Ava and Sara watched as he lumbered out of the room. “So,” Ava said, “That’s my dad.”

“He seems nice.” Sara settled on.

Ava rolled her eyes, “You met him for all of one second. You really have to go?”

“Yeah, I just yelled at Laurel where I was going, and my parents will probably be a bit annoyed if I ditch them for dinner without telling them.”

“Okay.”

They walked to the door, and then Sara said, “Wanna carpool to Thursday, and to practices?”

Ava nodded, “See you soon.”

Sara walked down the door and the path and to home, only turning the wrong way once.

 

She was late, unsurprisingly. Dinner had already started and she was barely able to give excuses before she sat down and began to load up her plate. Her parents both watched her, and Sara waited.

Her dad lost patience first. “So?”

“So what?” Sara played dumb.

“I know you weren’t out of the house all day unless you got a call, so?”

Laurel smiled from her place at the table, trying to hide it behind her fork, but neither of their parents were looking at her.

“I mean, I knew it would go to messages, have either of you checked yet?”

“Sara.” Her mother playfully scolded.

“Okay, okay, I’m on Coach Blake’s team.”

“Congratulations!”

“Yeah, it’s not the competitive one,” She shot her dad a small look, “But he is a good coach from everything I hear, so it should be a good season.”

“That’s excellent honey!” Her mom said.

“And don’t forget the best part.” Laurel said.

“The best part?” Her dad asked. His eyes narrowed. “Wait, you knew?” Laurel took a bite of food and shrugged innocently.

Sara rolled her eyes. “Ava’s on the team too.” She grinned. “I was just over there actually.”

Her dad stared at her for a long second. “You didn’t.”

“I did briefly meet her father.”

“Oh come on!” Her dropped his fork. “I have one murder case and all of the sudden I will never meet my daughter’s friend.”

“Quentin, dear,” Her mother said, “If you go to any of her games, you will get to meet her.”

“Right.” He nodded. “Very good point. Well, honey I’m very happy for you.”

“Me too.” Her mom added. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Sara said. “I’m excited, I think it’s going to be a good season.”


	7. Seventh Grade, Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Grade, Part III

“No! What are you doing?” Sara was standing on the midfield line, but could barely watch the play that was happening in their goal area. The ball was booted up towards her suddenly, and Sara started to move backwards as she saw Ava grinning at her from where the ball had come from. “Oh thank god.” Sara muttered.

Soccer with Ava was amazing. It wasn’t just the fact that there was finally someone on her team that she wanted to hang out with outside of soccer events, or that Ava was good (when Dani had been on her team it had been horrible), it more had to do with the fact that she was an infinitely better player now.

When they would hang out, they usually went to a field to pass around a ball, and then they would rehash games and practices talking about what the other could improve on and what they were good at. It was the greatest thing in her life. One day Laurel had tagged along briefly, and had just stared at them as they passed a ball.

“Is soccer really the only thing you guys talk about?” She scoffed.

“No.” Sara bit out, “Sometimes we talk about boys.” Ava had frowned at her.

Laurel looked pleasantly surprised. “Really? Can now be one of those times?”

“Sure.” Sara shrugged and tried to wink at Ava. She was getting better at it, but still wasn’t as smooth as she wanted to be. Luckily Ava got the picture, and Laurel didn’t see. “Last week, that ref was horrible. He was always in the wrong position.”

“You are still talking about soccer!” Laurel had yelled.

She hadn’t hung out with them again, which wasn’t Sara’s intention, but she wasn’t about to stop the best feedback that she had ever gotten.

The other team booted the ball out of bounds, and the whole field began to reset. Sara glanced at her mark, a girl that reminded her a bit of a weasel and was one of the fastest people she had ever played against.

So far, she had one good opportunity on goal, but had kicked it just wide. Disappointing, especially since her mark had barely let her touch the ball since. The other team had scored, but only once, and the other forwards on her team hadn’t done much of anything. It was down to her.

It wasn’t strictly true, the other forwards were good, Ashley had one of the most powerful kicks in the entire league, and Emily usually knew exactly how to position herself, but today Ashley was slower than usual, and Emily had been playing rough and unorganized.

Someone threw it in and Sara did her best to shake weasel girl. It seemed like fifteen things happened at once, but all of the sudden, Sara was in front of the goal, wide open, and the ball was at her feet. She didn’t hesitate for a second.

It went to the left, and for a second she thought it was going to be wide again, but the goalie was half-heartedly diving and the ball was swishing against the net.

She let out a roar as Ashley and Emily clapped her on the back before they went back to their side, and Ava shot her a salute from down the field.

The game ended with a tie. No one was able to score after that, and it wasn’t a tournament or playoffs, so at the final whistle it ended. They shook hands with the other team, Coach Blake said they did a good job, and then Ava and her were walking to where her parents were waiting.

“Nice game.” Her dad grinned. “Beautiful defense, beautiful goal.”

“Thanks Mr. Lance.” Ava nodded.

He clapped them both on the shoulder as her mother complimented them too.

When her dad finally met Ava, Sara had nervously gripped the edge of her seat as Ava got into the car, scared that her father would embarrass her. He had, going on about, “Sara’s told me so much about you, that it is truly an honor to finally meet you.” But Ava had grinned and answered his questions shyly until they had reached where practice was. Sara had all but dragged Ava out of the car and shot a betrayed look at her father, who just ignored it and grinned, mouthing, “She seems cool.”

It was unfortunate that when he drove away, Ava had turned to her and said, “He seems cool.”

It was doubly unfortunate that they hadn’t stopped thinking this after their subsequent meetings.

“You girls ready for school starting next week?” Her mom asked as they made their way towards the car.

Sara groaned, “Don’t remind me.”

Ava rolled her eyes, but then answered, “I am, 7th grade is medieval, so that should be exciting.”

“You’re such a nerd.” Sara muttered under her breath.

Ava poked her in the side and Sara glared at her.

“Sara.” Her mom said.

Sara rolled her eyes once her parents backs were turned and Ava bit her fist to keep from laughing. School wouldn’t be so bad if she had all her classes with Ava again.

 

“Excited for next week?” Her dad asked at the table.

“I am.” Her mom said. “It will be nice to see all the students back on campus. It’s been feeling empty with only the kids in summer classes.”

“Me too.” Laurel grinned. “I mean I’m nervous, since it’s high school. But I’m excited.”

“You’ll do good.” Sara said in between mouthfuls.

“What about you?” Three eyes turned on Sara and she froze with her fork halfway to her mouth.

Sara snorted, “Why would I be excited? School’s boring. Plus I feel like we already talked about this at the game.”

“You did really well last year.” Her mother said gently.

“So what?” Sara shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I love it like you guys do.”

“I bet you can do better than Laurel did.” Her dad said.

“Oh please.” Sara laughed. “You have to be kidding me.”

“I didn’t have the greatest grades in 7th grade.” Laurel nodded.

“Okay, everyone please shut up.” Sara said. “How about we talk about, I don’t know the Rockets. It’s been a pretty good season for them.”

The table was silent until her dad took pity and continued, “They might make it to the playoffs.”

“Yes.” Sara said. She stared at her plate and refused to look up at any of them for the rest of the conversation.

 

Sara climbed off the bus and stared for a moment. Dani stood next to her, “You good?”

“I can’t believe it’s starting again.” She groaned.

Dani nodded, “Hey at least this year we have two classes together.”

“True.” Sara said.

Dani muttered something else under her breath that Sara ignored, instead trying to catch a glimpse of Ava. There was no such luck. Dani poked her lightly, “You ready to go to class?”

“No, but I guess we better. First impressions and all that.”

Dani laughed, “Do we care what our teachers think of us now?”

“No.” Sara denied quickly, “Just repeating what my parents kept saying last night. I don’t think they’ve ever cared this much about me going to school.”

“They on you?”

“They think I’m somehow going to be Laurel.” Sara grumbled, “Not sure where they got that impression.”

“Ouch.”

“Right?” Sara sighed.

“You have to make sure they know you aren’t.” Dani said.

“I thought I did a good job over the summer, talking only about soccer.”

Dani laughed, “No idiot. Laurel’s dabbled in sports, you have to do something that she never would have.”

“Do you have something in mind?” Sara asked.

“Detention.”

“That’s your grand plan? Get me in more trouble with my parents?” Sara shook her head.

“Maybe for a day or so, but they’ll lower their expectations.”

It was a dumb enough plan that it just might work. Sara regarded Dani for a moment, and was suddenly extremely grateful that Ava was nowhere around. It wasn’t that she’d never been in trouble before, she was just pretty good at going right up to the line and not crossing it. The only time she’d been called to the principal’s office was last year.

“I can’t do something too bad.” Sara commented.

“Yeah, no fights.” Dani nodded, “Just be late.”

“There’s a set amount, right?”

“Yeah.” Dani said. “I’d say let’s stick around here, but teachers never take attendance on the first day, but they do go over the stuff like how many tardies give a detention.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

 

“I can’t believe we don’t have P.E. together.” Sara whined to Ava. “It’s going to be so boring.” They luckily had History together, and Sara took her seat next to Ava.

“Are you actually surprised?” Ava asked. “You don’t think Miss Stevens made sure we weren’t in the same class?”

Sara paused, and shrugged, “It seems like a lot of effort to go through.”

“Her job is to make schedules.” Ava said.

Sara rolled her eyes, “Okay, but at least you’re sad that we don’t have it together, right?”

“Obviously.” Ava nodded. “Instead I’m stuck with Penny.”

“Ouch.” Sara said.

Their teacher, Mrs. Dearborn called the class to order, and Sara sunk into her seat. Using her pencil to trace the initials that had been carved in the desk long ago.

 

“She seems extremely passionate.” Ava said once they had exited the class.

“I suppose that’s one word for it.” Sara said.

Mrs. Dearborn had gone on and on about the medieval ages, to the point that she seemed beyond obsessed. “I’m excited.” Ava said.

“I forgot how much of a nerd you are.”

“Hey.” Ava said, “I can still beat you at basketball.”

“You’re basically a foot taller than me.” Sara said. “And it’s not like nerds can’t be into sports. You are just way too into school.”

Ava opened her mouth, but closed it, “Whatever.”

“You and Laurel, jeez I need to surround myself with some other people.”

“What about Laurel?” Ava asked quickly.

Sara stared at her for a bit, “Just you’re both cut from the same cloth, way too into school.”

“Oh.” Ava said. “Cool.”

“No, not cool.” Sara said, “Now my parents think that I can do it too.”

Ava looked at her for a long moment. “You could.”

“Not you too.”

“No listen to me.” Ava said and rounded so they were facing each other. Ava even bent down slightly so that Sara wasn’t staring straight up. “You’re actually really smart. If you wanted to, I bet you could get better grades than Laurel.”

“And you.” Sara shot in.

Ava smiled, “Keep dreaming. You could come close. And obviously your parents want you to do good, it’s okay if that’s not your biggest priority. Your parents will eventually get it, even if they needle all the time.”

“But I want them off my back.” Sara whined.

Ava stopped for a moment, and the first bell rang. Sara made a move to go, but Ava held her in place, “Then make a joke about it. It’s not like you don’t do that already.”

“Make a joke about it?”

Ava rolled her eyes, “Humor. Come on, you know what I mean, you already do this. Now it’s time to get to class, I’ll see you later.”

Ava peeled off for her class, and Sara watched her go before she turned down the hall towards her, still trying to work out exactly what Ava meant.

 

It was weirder than she wanted to admit to not ride the bus with Laurel. The high school had a different bus system, and even though they had only ridden together for a year, Sara found herself waiting for Laurel to get home pacing in the front of her house. 

Dani had invited her over, but Sara had refused, and instead nervously waited until Laurel came through the door. The highschool got out 10 minutes later, and it felt like the longest 10 minutes of Sara’s life. Worse than waiting for the call for soccer tryouts.

The door finally creaked open and Sara paused and looked. “So?”

Laurel shut it carefully behind her and grinned, “High school is amazing!”

“Yeah?”

“I mean scary, some of the people are just so big, but there’s just so much happening, it’s fantastic. And all the different classes that I can take, and all the new people.” Laurel finally took a breath, “I’m very, very excited.”

“How have I surrounded myself with people who are the most excited about classes?” Sara grumbled but walked forward and hugged Laurel. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Me too.”

“Otherwise I’d have to kick someone’s ass.”

Laurel ruffled her hair and Sara batted at her hand, “You’re cute if you think that would ever happen. You’re in seventh grade sis.”

Sara puffed out her chest, “I could do it.”

“Okay.” Laurel said. “Whatever you say.”

“You wanna bet.”

“No, no.” Laurel said. “I know better than that.”

Sara harrumphed, but stared at her, “I mean I knew that you could do it and everything. I mean you’re Laurel fucking Lance.”

“Sara!”

“Mom and dad aren’t going to be home for hours.”

Laurel hesitated and then grinned, “I am Laurel Dinah Lance.”

“Yeah, you can do anything.”

“You’re right.”

“High school’s your bitch.”

Laurel and Sara burst out into giggles, and moved out of the entryway and into the kitchen, as Laurel began a play by play of her day, followed by the most intense questioning of Sara’s life about her own day.

When her dad came over, he found them at  the table, with empty glasses in front of them, talking softly and smiling.

“A good first day?” He asked.

“The best.” Laurel grinned.

“It was school.” Sara shrugged.

“Sounds like my girls.”

 

School was, well, it was school. Sara couldn’t see what Laurel and Ava found so exciting about it, and more and more Sara found herself slacking off in the classes she didn’t share with Ava. Soccer was winding down, and Sara found herself missing Ava more and more. They had gone from hanging out with each other every day for the whole day, to sporadically seeing each other at school. It was the worst.

She was beginning to realize that Dani and her other friends were okay, but she didn’t really want to hang out with them for extended periods of time. Not like with Ava. She still sat at lunch with them, since Ava was still nowhere to be found inside the cafeteria. Sara had considered asking Ava, but it had been a whole year.

So, she kept sitting at the table for lunch, but started to eat faster and faster so she could slip out and play basketball sooner and sooner. They didn’t seem annoyed, or at least, none of them had said anything. Dani still talked her ear off in class, Sara was pretty sure one day she was going to get them both detention (Sara hadn’t committed to being late yet), but it was nice to have someone to talk to as they went through formulas and photosynthesis. Ava never really talked with her during class, Sara had begun to pass notes, but most of them went unanswered. But that was Ava, and Sara didn’t expect much less.

It was just those moments, that when she would lay in her bed before falling asleep, she would wonder what it was about Ava that drew her so close. So far, she had no answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been awhile, but school's started and destroyed me, as usual. Anyway, I think I've got it a bit more figured out now, so hopefully I won't be gone for another 2 months or so. Hope you enjoy this chapter!


	8. Seventh Grade, Part IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Grade, Part IV

Soccer was over. Or had been for two weeks. And so Sara found herself at the Queen’s mansion trying to not to feel incredibly small. It was just, incredibly hard. Laurel had given her one look after the season ended, one that Sara knew was the you’ve-been-not-hanging-out-with-me-because-soccer-and-that’s-fine-but-the-season-is-over-so-now-you-have-no-excuse-so-it’s-time-for-you-to-hang-out and she hadn’t even tried to struggle. No half-hearted excuse. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it’s just she didn’t want to. She’d barely interacted with Ollie or Tommy, and they seemed, well, nice-ish. But here she was, unable to even try to resist Laurel’s wishes. And she didn’t need Laurel arguing in circles around her like last time.

So, they were waiting in the, whatever fancy word you call the entrance of a house was, trying not to fidget because people who could afford butlers, didn’t fidget. 

“Laurel!” A tiny squeak came from the stairs and there was a blur and then Laurel was laughing and staring at a tiny girl hugging Laurel’s leg. The girl released her grip and looked at Sara. “Who are you?”

Laurel kneeled, “This is my sister, Sara.”

“Hello.” Sara said and awkwardly kneeled next to Laurel.

“I’m Thea.” She said shyly.

“Hi Thea.”

“And the Lance sisters are finally here.” Ollie walked through a doorway with his arms opened wide.

“Hi Ollie.” Sara gratefully stood up, and glanced back at Thea who was still staring at her. She looked back to Ollie.

“I’m glad you finally decided we were cool enough for you.” He joked.

“Oh shut up.” Sara said hoping that she was not out of place. She could do jokey making fun of each other just fine.

Laurel rolled her eyes. “Is Tommy here?”

“Yes, he’s harassing someone.” Ollie shrugged. “Can I give you the tour?” Ollie held out his arm like he was a 19th century gentleman and Sara took it with a laugh.

“So those are the bedrooms.” He pointed upstairs and waggled his eyebrows and only stopped when Laurel socked him in the arm. “That way is the main sitting room, through there is to the dining room and kitchen, down that way is to the backyard, over there are boring rooms that have art or something, and that way is where we’re headed.”

“And that’s to?”

“You’ll see.”

They walked through one room, Sara eying the maid and into another which had the largest TV that Sara had ever seen. “That’s amazing.”

“I know. Dad picked it up last month.”

“Oh the young Lance!” Tommy walked into the room with a shout.

Sara gave a little wave to him and he bounded over, and gave her a high five. Sara glanced at Laurel who just gave her an amused grin. 

“Now,” Ollie stated, “We would have gone swimming, but the young Lance here decided that she was only free in the middle of fall and it’s a bit cold. So, we’re gonna fire this sucker up.”

“The Rockets are playing.” Sara said.

“Laurel you were right, your sister is awesome.” Tommy said as he fumbled with the remote. “Why have we been hanging out with you?” Laurel rolled her eyes.

“Some snacks, and a board game?” Ollie asked. The group nodded and he looked at Thea, “Speedy, why don’t you go pick one?”

Thea grinned and ran out of the room. A maid delivered a tray of snacks and Sara watched the group carefully unsure how to react. “Thanks, Raisa.” Ollie nodded. Sara just watched as Thea raced back in holding the box containing Pretty, Pretty Princess.

She was completely unprepared when Ollie clapped his hands together, “Great choice!” And took the box from her and set it up as Laurel and Tommy took seats on the floor. Sara eyed them carefully, and took a seat close to Laurel.

“Are they for real?” Sara whispered to her.

“I told you, they really love Thea, I mean I do too.” Laurel said.

Sara shrugged, but then settled down as they began to play. It was probably the oddest moment in Sara’s life, playing an unquestionably girly board game with two high school boys, her sister, and an elementary schooler. It was also fun, the game interspersed with Ollie, Tommy, and her yelling at the TV whenever the Rockets made a bad play. Or at the refs. Combined with Thea absolutely shining and destroying them all. It was pretty amazing, considering Sara was almost positive that the game came entirely down to luck. And Ollie and Tommy were definitely not letting her win.

“Well,” Sara said once they had packed up and were standing by the door, “I had a surprisingly good time.”

“Ah ha!” Tommy grinned, “You wished you didn’t ignore us all summer.”

“Maybe a little bit.” Sara shrugged, “But then I got to become one of the best forwards in the area.”

“That is commendable.” Ollie said in a ridiculous voice.

They all laughed and Sara and Laurel walked out the door.

“You really did have a good time?” Laurel asked.

“I really did, I mean, your friends are pretty weird, but it was fun.”

 

Sara found herself hanging out with Ollie and Tommy more and more. Sometimes at Ollie’s house, sometimes around Starling City, and very occasionally at their house. Never at Tommy’s house. Sara asked Laurel about it once.

“His mom died when he was eight, and his dad.” Laurel trailed off, “It’s not a very happy place for him. I think he spends most of his night’s at the Queen’s anyway.”

She never asked again.

It was fun, they were easygoing, and Sara could see exactly how they could deal with no consequences. There was nothing that they weren’t willing to do, and Ollie would just answer to any naysayers, “What’s life without a little fun and risk?”

And what was it indeed, even if in Sara’s opinion, having the money to be bailed out of any situation meant there was not a lot of risk involved.

Ava was, well, Sara couldn’t figure out a read on her. She told them that Ollie, Tommy, and Laurel would all be fine with them joining them, but Ava always declined.

“They have their names on buildings, Sara.” Ava said once in class. “I just, I can’t.”

“Hey, I’m not going to force you.” Sara said. “And yeah, it’s a little weird. Okay it’s a lot weird.” Ava smiled. “But they’re good people. For the most part.”

“Maybe someday.” Ava shrugged.

“That’s good enough for me.” Sara said.

Her parents, well, her dad especially, weren’t exactly thrilled about the new developments. “You should stick with kids your own age.” He grumbled when they were in front of the TV one day.

“Huh?” Sara asked.

“I don’t like you hanging out with the Queen and Merlyn boys.”

“Laurel does.”

“Well I don’t like her hanging out with them either.”

“Come on dad!”

“I know I can’t stop you.” He sighed. “But they’re going to get you into trouble.”

“I’m not stupid.”

“I wasn’t saying you were. Just be careful.”

“Okay, okay.” Sara said.

 

“Sara, stop, why, you’re practically sprinting.” Dani huffed beside her.

“I was not.”

“Well, slow down. What’s the hurry?”

Sara paused. She didn’t actually know. She had just taken off walking towards class, and had become so used to Ava’s long legs that she was practically sprinting.

“Randolph rarely even takes attendance.” Dani said. “We’re fine.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry.”

“What has got you in such a rush?”

Sara sighed. Last night the progress reports had been in the mail, and her parents, unsurprisingly, had looked at her grades with disappointment.

“You did so well last year.” Her mom said.

“Is seventh grade giving you trouble?” Her dad asked.

No, no, no. Sara didn’t know how to tell them that the only reason that she had done so well last year was to keep up with Ava. Now with Ava in only two classes, the rest had fallen by the wayside, and she was back to her usual average performance.

“I know you can do better.” Her mom had said this morning and Sara was annoyed. Maybe she could do better, but she didn’t want to.

“Parents are stupid.” She finally said to Dani.

“They aren’t on your back again are they?” Dani sighed.

“Progress reports.” Sara shrugged.

“God, when will all the adults here realize that none of us are going to save the world and cure cancer.”

Sara laughed. She could only mostly agree with Dani. She was fairly certain that Ava would do something akin to curing cancer. “Probably only when they’re on their deathbed.”

Dani stopped, and then pulled Sara off the sidewalk. “We need to ditch.”

“What?”

“Come on, you talk a big game, don’t you.”

“I do not.”

“Yes you do, all tough and whatnot. It’s not like school is so important that we can’t miss a day.”

Sara paused and looked towards the horde of kids entering the school. Suddenly, Ollie’s voice echoed in her brain, “What’s life without a little fun and risk?”

“Okay.” Sara said.

“Okay?” Dani blinked and Sara nodded. “Yes! I was scared for a second you’d been spending way too much time with the Ava girl.”

“Hey!”

“Oh get over it.” They took a couple looks around and then ducked into the grove of trees that bordered campus. A bit of scraping through and they were on the street. No one was in sight.

“So, where are we going?” Sara asked.

“You have your lunch money?” Dani responded. Sara nodded. “Then let’s go to the mall.”

 

The mall was, well it wasn’t Sara’s favorite place in the world. It wasn’t the worst either, that would probably be whatever class she was supposed to be in right now. Without a bell controlling everything, she had no idea. Getting to the mall, had been too long of a walk, especially since Dani insisted on hiding behind bushes everytime a car went by.

“We don’t have to do this.” Sara told her each time.

“Your dad is a cop! People will know.”

“Not every cop knows each other, let alone their families.” Sara had just muttered. “Besides, my dad doesn’t even work in this precinct.”

“It’s a risk, I’m not comfortable taking.”

They had finally made it, and Sara had found a table at the food court and stared at the pretzel stand, wondering if it was still too early to get some. They easily blended with the harried mothers and toddlers, no one was giving them a second glance.

“So, what now?” Sara asked.

Dani looked around. “We go shopping.”

Sara sighed. She should have known. Where Dani got the energy and excitement for shopping was a mystery to them all. “Where to first?”

Dani didn’t say a word, just started to walk, and Sara trudged after her.

 

They couldn’t buy anything, Dani, for once, didn’t have enough money to blow on a shopping spree. It didn’t stop them from going to every single store in the whole building. They had gotten a couple stares, but most of the mall employees looked too tired to do anything about it. It was only when Sara’s stomach growled loud enough to wake up her father that Dani agreed they should get food.

Sara happily munched on a pretzel, and was relieved when Dani suggested they walk home. It was going to be a long walk, and this hadn’t been all that much fun. They should have gone home right when they decided to cut. Her parents usually left a couple minutes after she did, and they could have had the whole house to themselves until Laurel got home. Even school would have been better than this.

They were walking down the street when a cop car pulled up beside them, Dani and her both froze. “Are you Sara Lance and Danielle Streon?” Sara just nodded. “Please enter the vehicle.”

They sat in complete silence as the cop drove them away. Sara had been in the back of a squad car once, back when her dad wasn’t yet a detective and she’d begged him to drive her around and pretend that she was a criminal. It was a lot more fun when she was laughing. She refused to look at Dani, instead staring through the metal grating at the back of the seat in front of her.

The drive felt like it took forever, and soon enough they were in front of her dad’s precinct. “Come on girls.” The cop said, and lead them inside, with a hand on each of their shoulders.

Sara stared at her schools as she entered, ignoring any of the chattering, until she heard the cry of “Sara!”

Her dad raced over, and looked her up at down, and then at the officer. “Found them walking about a half mile from the mall.” He answered. Her father sighed and nodded, dismissing him.

“Girls.” Her father said, “I do not know what was going inside your mind. But you cannot do that again. We had no idea what happened to you. Sara, you’re grounded. Dani, your parents will decide what to do. Right now, I have paperwork to finish, so you girls can go sit on that bench over there until I can take you home.” His tone was flat and even, and Sara flinched internally with each word.

They walked over and Dani said, “I told you, your dad is a cop.”

“Just shut up. Okay?”

 

Sara wasn’t sure what to expect the next day at school, but this was not it. Everyone was going on like nothing odd had happened. Not like her parents had barred her from doing anything but homework and school because she decided to cut school. Well, everyone but Ava.

Ava hadn’t even acknowledged her all day. Not in any of the classes they had together, and well Sara couldn’t play basketball at lunch because she had to do a work detail for each lunch period for the next week.

No one asked her where she’d been, and for a relatively lousy day she wanted to at least brag a little bit about cutting school. It was extremely disappointing that she couldn’t.

At home, Laurel didn’t even say hello, just swept up to her room. Sara debated for an hour as she dutifully did her homework, and once she finished, she knocked on Laurel’s door.

“I’m unhappy with you.” Laurel said.

“Please.” Sara said as she kept knocking.

There was some rustling behind the door, and then it opened. Laurel’s mouth was drawn to a thin line, “You have 30 seconds.”

Sara nodded, “I’ll take it. I’m sorry. Look, Mom and Dad have been giving me this pressure on school to match up to you, and I’m not you. School is, meh. I go because I have to. I wanted them to know I wasn’t you. Okay? I know it was dumb, but then they’d finally realize and stop telling me all this stuff about how much potential I have.”

Laurel’s face had broken and she was staring mournfully, “I’m sorry that you felt that way.” And she reached out her arms and wrapped her arms around Sara.

“It’s not your fault.” They held each other for several long seconds.

“I certainly didn’t help.” Laurel said. “Come in.”

Sara followed inside. “It wasn’t even fun. Dani dragged me to the mall.”

“And you agreed?”

“I didn’t have any better ideas. It was all very spur of the moment.”

“You hate the mall.”

“Dani doesn’t. And the mall seemed better than school.”

“I’m going to say it. I don’t like that girl. She’s such a bitch.”

“Laurel!”

“What, look, she’s obviously going to get you into more trouble.”

“Oh, like Ollie and Tommy are great examples.”

Laurel paused. “Well, they aren’t the best, but I don’t think they are genuinely bad people.”

“You think Dani is genuinely bad?”

“I’ve never like her.” Laurel shrugged. “And I know it’s extremely convenient to be her friend since she’s right next door, but if she wasn’t, I doubt you’d even give her the time of day.”

Sara let out a long breath in no mood to argue. “You’re probably right.”

“Oh I know I am.” Laurel said, “And obviously you can’t cut her out of your life, that’s just overly messy, but please be careful.”

“When am I not?”

Laurel just shot her a disapproving look.

 

It didn’t get that much better with Ava. She still didn’t say much in class, and no teacher had assigned a group project. Sara wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or annoyed. When the week ended, with her work detail, she held out hope that sports would mend what words wouldn’t. It didn’t work exactly like that. Ava warmed up slightly, but only really when they played basketball. Sara had gone through a million different ways in her head to get Ava talking freely to her again, and gone over several with Laurel, but nothing seemed like it would work. She had even gotten significantly worse at basketball, so much so, that she mostly jogged up and down the court because no one was willing to pass her the ball when she would inevitably turn it over or chuck an airball.

“You know Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn.”

Sara looked up at the cluster of girls that had somehow appeared out of nowhere on the basketball game. The game faltered for a second, and Sara took a step away from the court. Ava wandered over.

“Um.” Sara just answered.

“Right?” Penny stood in the middle, crossing her arms against her hot pink jacket.

“Yes?” Sara answered. She’d been at Ollie’s house and met his sister, and hung out with them a half-dozen or so times. Though none since she’d cut school. Her parents were not going to let up on her being grounded anytime soon.

Many questions were launched at once and Sara barely resisted the urge to cover her ears with her hands.

“How tall are they?”

“Are they nice?”

“Who are they dating?”

“Is it true they have five cars each?”

“Are they really that hot in person?”

Sara raised her hands as Ava took a step so she stood directly behind her, staring at everyone coolly. “Where is this coming from?”

Penny spoke with a smile, “They were rumors that your sister is with them, we wanted to see if they were true. Apparently, I was wrong.”

Sara didn’t refrain from rolling her eyes at Penny. The girl was such, as Laurel would say, a bitch.

“Ollie and Tommy are nice.” Sara said, “That’s all I’m saying. Now, I’m going to play.”

She turned around and looked as Ava gave a look at the assembled group that made them only grumble.

“Thanks.” Sara said to Ava as they joined the group again. Dave gave them a confused look, but Sara waved her hand to indicate that he didn’t need to think too much of it.

“No problem.” Ava answered, “But I think you are going to have to give them something substantial.”

The group of girls was lingering at the edge of the court, whispering together excitedly and glancing at Sara occasionally. Sara sighed. She already knew that they were going to be relentless.

“But really.” Sara said. “I’ve missed you. I’m sorry about the whole ditching thing.”

Ava sighed. “I’m sorry too.”

“Ava, you don’t ha-”

Ava stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “I do. You didn’t deserve that for over a week. It’s just, you know that I can’t get into trouble. They called me to talk to Principal Wethers.”

“Ava, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know that you’ve suffered a lot from this and I haven’t helped at all.”

“Still, I’m sorry. Please.”

“I forgive you.” Ava said. “But you get it?”

“Yes.” Sara said and resisted the urge to wrap Ava into a hug. The only time they’d hugged before was when Ava found out they were on the same soccer team. “I’ve missed you a lot.”

“I’ve missed you too.”


	9. Seventh Grade, Part V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventh Grade, Part V

Fall went into winter and winter went into spring. School dragged on and Sara found herself both relieved by the monotony and bored out of her mind. Things settled down, well they mostly settled down. Penny and her gang held her in greater respect which freaked her out, but Ava glared at them whenever they tried to approach her. Sara found it extremely endearing.

Ava and her were good. Better than even in the middle of the soccer season to Sara’s complete astonishment.

Once her parents had lifted her grounding, Ava came over most days, or invited Sara over to hers. They’d always do some homework, but Ava relaxed and didn’t make her finish everything before they did something else.

Pretty soon Sara got to know her brothers too. Ava’s dad was still mostly absent, but Sara would occasionally see him. He always looked completely exhausted. Ava told her that he worked two jobs during the week, one during the day one at night, and a third on the weekends. Ava, Sara found for the most part, took care of herself. Whether it was food, laundry, or other things, Ava would find time to do those things in between homework and hanging with Sara.

At first, Ava would disappear, and Sara would look up to realize that she was alone and then would traverse the house until she found Ava doing some chore. Ava would blush, much to Sara’s bemusement, and stammer and explain. After this happening several times, Sara just sat her down and gave her an even stare.

“You don’t need to hide the fact that you need to do chores.”

“It’s just not-”

“It’s a part of your life, and I’m a part of your life. I’m not going to be a bitch and make fun of you or something. I’m not exactly sure what you’re scared of.”

Ava nodded. “Thanks.”

“I can even help you out.”

“No.” Ava said. “That’s just, no.”

Sara nodded, “I get it. I’ll struggle through algebra and you can sweep the kitchen.”

“Yes.” Ava said.

It worked out. And Sara found small ways to help Ava. She just always made sure she was completely done with whatever assignment she had been working on.

Life was good. Once the weather had gotten less rainy, Ava and her had started going to the soccer field on the weekends, making plans for when they were on the competitive team. Sara always crossed her fingers. No point in jinxing things a month out from tryouts.

“You look happy.” Laurel said one day.

“Um thanks?” Sara replied.

“I’m proud of you.” Laurel wrapped her into a hug.

“This is very random.” Sara said but hugged her back.

“I just,” Laurel shrugged, “I feel like you were figuring things out with Ava.”

“You make it sound like we’re dating!” Sara laughed.

Laurel rolled her eyes, “You know what I mean. You had a new friend and it made things complicated and you made stupid decisions-”

“I made one stupid decision.”

“Anyway,” Laurel said loudly, “I think you’ve figured it out.”

“If you say so.” Sara said. “I think it’s really down to my new fame as an associate of the Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn.”

Laurel sighed, “You just won’t let me do this, will you?”

“Well it’s completely bizarre, and I’m a bit confused with what’s happening, so no.” Sara grinned.

“God, if you weren’t my sister.”

“Laurel.” Sara said, “I’m gravely injured.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Mom!”

“You know that we’re the only ones home.” Laurel shook her head.

“Dang it.” Sara said but smiled. “I love you too.”

Laurel just smiled fondly.

At first it had freaked Sara out, because Laurel was right. She was happy. Extremely happy. All those movies that talked about middle school like it was the worst part of life got it wrong. She had a best friend, a true best friend and it was awesome. She hadn’t realized how happy she was until Laurel had pointed it out.

“So.” Her dad sat down next to her. “You’re almost down with seventh grade.”

“Two weeks left.”

“Wow.”

“What?”

“You’re my little girl, and you’re growing up so fast.”

“Please stop.” Sara said as she awkwardly patted his back.

“You can’t let your old man be sentimental.”

“No.” She said. “That’s why you have a wife.”

He laughed. “I suppose that’s a little bit true. But look at you busy, keeping up in school, friends, you need to have Ava over more often.”

“So I don’t hang out,” Sara adopted a deeper voice, “The Queen and Merlyn boys.”

“I do not sound like that.” He laughed.

“Yes, you do. And that’s not an answer.”

“I suppose that it wouldn’t hurt. But no, I like her a lot. She’s cool.”

Sara groaned but recalled last night when Ava had stayed over for dinner and taken to question her dad about being in the police. “It’s cause she might want to be a cop?”

He shrugged. “I think we both know that she’s going places.”

“Yeah.” Sara smiled. “We do.”

“I’m not sure that she’s going to be a cop.”

“Really?” Sara bristled.

“I think she’s too smart for that.”

“So you’re dumb.”

“Compared to Ava at my age, yes.”

“I’m just going to write that down really quick.”

“Hahaha.” He deadpanned. “I was more like you.”

“So, now you’re saying that I’m dumb.” Sara pouted.

“No, no!” He said in alarm, only stopping when Sara laughed. “Sheesh my own daughter against me. I just didn’t care about school that much. I skipped more than once, and I didn’t go to college like your mother. I went straight to the police academy. It’s not for everyone, but it worked for me and taught me a lot. Especially how much of a dumbass I was.”

“And you think?”

“I don’t think Ava is the one to go out of school and into police academy. She’ll do something else.”

Sara sat in silence and nodded. “I mean probably, but.”

“She would be a fantastic cop.”

“She does like rules a lot.”

Her dad laughed, “You know that’s not why. Sure, upholding rules is important, but there’s a lot more to cops than just that. You have to make quick decisions based on what is right or wrong, and take in a lot of information and sort it through quickly.”

“Okay, okay.”

“You know that you’d make a good cop too.”

Something swelled in Sara’s chest. “You think so?”

“I know so.” Her dad smiled. “You do have a sense of right and wrong and do not stand for injustice.”

“Thank you.” Sara said.

He squeezed her shoulder and then grinned at each other. “Now, how about helping me with dinner?”

 

“I can’t believe we are going to be eighth graders.” Sara said.

“You aren’t going to be the big man on campus though.” Ava said.

“Please do not finish that joke.”

“You’re too short.” Ava laughed. Sara sighed and shook her head.

“You know that you’re not even creative.” Sara said. “I’m sure I’ve heard every single one.”

“It’s okay Sara.” Ava said. “I don’t mind that I have to stare down at you.”

“Oh, ha ha ha.” Sara rolled her eyes. “Just because most of us aren’t part giant doesn’t mean you have to take it out on our poor souls.”

Starling City had jumped right out of spring and into summer. The temperature was hot enough that their group had decided to take a break from basketball and spend the lunches signing yearbooks under the shade of the few trees that bordered the campus. Ava and Sara had passed theirs around, and now were staring at the few kids who had decided to brave the hit.

“I know what you mean though.”

“It seems not that long ago I found you yelling at kids and punching boys in the face.”

“Oh god.” Ava covered her already red cheeks. “I had forgotten about that.”

“How could you!” Sara said. “That was one of the best things I’d ever seen.”

“I was so frustrated that day.” Ava sighed.

“I think I figured that out.” Sara said. “I don’t normally see you clock kids.”

“I think those boys are still scared of me.”

“Really?”

“The other day I saw them run across the street so they didn’t have to cross next to me.”

Sara let out a loud laugh. Several of the boys looked at her, but she waved them off. “God, you’re the best.”

“That is not something to be proud of.” Ava initially stated. “I mean, it is, a little bit.”

“You’re a force to be reckoned with.”

“Don’t act like you’re not.”

They grinned at each other and Sara leaned against the semi-cool metal of the picnic table. Not for the first time she wondered how lucky she was to have met Ava.

“Still though,” Ava said, “I can’t believe it either.”

“Are we really this old?”

“And then we’ll be in high school.”

“No, I mean we’re sitting here reminiscing like we’re 80.”

“It’s too hot to do anything else.” Ava yawned.

Sara gave her a sideways glance, “You’re tired?”

“No,” Ava said, “I mean I guess. Stayed up last night because I forgot to do laundry.”

Sara glance down at Ava’s sweatshirt, which had a faded Starling City Knights logo on it. “You stayed up all night to do laundry?”

“Not all night, just later than planned. I forgot that my dad need his nice stuff this morning.”

Sara bit her lip from questioning why Ava was the one doing her dad’s laundry.

Ava glanced at her, her eyes soft, “My dad was working a shift.”

“You have four brothers.”

“So? You think any of them know how to use a washing machine. Well, I hope Derek does. I told you that he moved to Lacrol for that factory job?” Sara nodded. “Okay so everyone besides Derek, probably not.”

“Do you do their laundry too?” Sara asked.

“Yeah.” Ava shrugged. “Easier to do everything at once.”

“It shouldn’t be you.” Sara said.

Ava smiled and placed her hand on Sara’s forearm. “Sara.”

“Yeah, I know, I know. It’s not my business.”

“I’m just trying to make things easier on my dad.” Ava said.

“You’re brothers should too.” Sara said.

“I thought you liked my brothers?”

“I do.” Sara acknowledged. “But they’re also obviously idiots.”

Ava laughed. “I could have told you that.”

“Don’t try to do everything.”

“I don’t.”

Sara just stared at her.

“I swear!” Ava said.

“Sorry, if I don’t believe you.”

“Do I do all the work on group projects?”

“You try to when I’m not up to your standards.” Ava opened her mouth, but then closed it, blushing. Sara laughed. “It’s one of the things that I like about you. And I sorta get it, I guess. Not really, I don’t think grades will ever so important to me that I’ll do double the work.”

“You’re not that bad.” Ava said. “Anymore.” Ava cut in quickly.

Back in sixth grade there had definitely been a few projects where Sara had completely slacked off. But Ava had told her that if she did it again she would get a new partner and so Sara had gotten a lot better. She likes to think that she’s Ava’s best partner now.

Sara shrugged, “I had a good reason to.”

 

Sara took her usual seat next to Dani on the bus, grinning as it pulled away from school. She was done with seventh grade.

“Feels good.” Dani commented.

Things hadn’t ever gotten past polite conversation with them since they ditched. Laurel’s words rang in Sara’s ear, but no matter what, they still sat together and ate together. That wasn’t about to change anytime soon.

“Yep.” Sara responded back.

“Are you seriously still mad at me?” Dani asked.

“No!” Sara said. “I just, you know we can’t do it again.”

“Well, you definitely can’t.”

Sara sighed. “Can you just not do that?”

“Do what? Be myself?” Dani rolled her eyes. “I know I’ve hinted, but I think you need it to hear it straight up. Ever since you started to hang out with that Ava girl you’ve became really annoying.”

Sara stared at her. “Maybe ever since I had a real friend like Ava I realized how annoying you are.”

“Oh, sure.” Dani gave a chuckle out. “Like I haven’t been there for everything.”

What Dani exactly meant by everything, Sara wasn’t quite sure. They had grown up together, at least for the most part, but so had Sara with half the other kids at school.

“Like that means anything?”

“I know all your secrets.” Dani said.

Sara paused, trying to think of what Dani could hold over her. Nothing that was anytime soon. “And I know all of yours.” Sara shot back.

Dani regarded her for a moment. “Fine. We don’t say anything, but we’re never sitting next to each other again.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Dani stood up for a moment, clutching the back of the seat, but seeing no empty spots, sat back down. “After this bus ride.”

“Right.” Sara rolled her eyes. She stared studiously out the window. What a way for seventh grade to end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a bit shorter chapter, but seventh grade is over! Thanks to everyone who has been reading, and especially to those leaving comments, it means a lot!


	10. Eighth Grade, Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eighth Grade, Part I
> 
> Note: minor discussion of death and grief at the end

Sara couldn’t quite believe it as she surveyed the pool. Thea was splashing in the shallow end with Tommy. Ollie and Laurel were sunbathing on two rafts. And Ava was grinning next to her. She had let the matter rest long ago about Ava joining her at the Queen’s. She had simply told her one day, “If you do want to come and hang out with them, everyone would be thrilled to have you. Just let me know.”

Ava had given her a tentative nod and Sara had stopped asking her, something that she was pretty sure was annoying to them both. She didn’t stop from telling stories about them though, or talking about how much fun it was, and finally, yesterday, Ava had announced that the next time she was hanging out with them she’d want to join.

Laurel had been standing near and wrapped Ava in a hug and announced that the next time would be tomorrow. When they broke apart, Ava was blushing, Laurel grinning, and Sara shaking her head. But it was decided. And Ava hadn’t backed out.

So now they were here, racing back and forth, while alternating playing around with any mixture of the group. Sara couldn’t help but glance at Ava’s expressions every now and then to gauge whether she was having a good time.

All the sudden there was a huge splash, and Sara looked over to see Laurel sputtering in the water and Ollie laughing from his raft. That ended quickly as Laurel moved swiftly through the water and overturned him. He gave a startled squeal that had everyone laughing and came out of the water flipping his hair out of his eyes.

“Laurel.” He whined.

“I’m not sorry.” Laurel held her chin up but went over to him and placed a hand on his chest and one under his chin. “You are okay though?”

Sara rolled her eyes and glanced at Ava who had gone completely rigid. “You okay?” Sara asked scooting closer.

“Yes.” Ava let out a sharp breath and finally teared her eyes off where Ollie and Laurel were lightly splashing one another.

“Are you sure?” Sara asked.

Ava gave her an unconvincing smile. “I am sure. I’m having fun. Thanks for this.”

“I didn’t do anything.” Sara said and studied Ava’s face looking for any hint of what was truly wrong. She had never gotten weird in the water before.

“You didn’t nag me about coming.” Ava said. “Thanks for that. You let me get ready in my own time.”

“Oh.” Sara bent down in the water in some weird way to hide her face. Ava cocked her head as she stared at Sara. “Let’s race.” Sara finally said.

Ava nodded and on the count of three they both leapt off the wall and swam to the other end. Sara looked up to see Ava already touching the wall when she was 1 foot off it and popped her head out of the water as she glided to the wall.

“Too slow.” Ava shrugged amid some hoots and hollers from Tommy, Ollie, Laurel, and Thea.

“Very impressive.” Tommy said. “You guys done racing and want to play some Marco Polo now that those two are finally wet?” He gestured towards Ollie and Laurel.

“Sure.” Sara said as she slowly caught her breath. A glance at Ava let her know that Ava was interested too.

“Excellent!” Tommy said and turned to Thea who was grinning.

Laurel and Ollie agreed to join quickly and soon everyone in the pool was ducking and splashing to avoid being it. Sara couldn’t prove it, but she was sure that Thea was cheating somehow. As they played, the girl seemed able to wriggle her way out of almost any situation, even once when she had been cornered in 3 foot water. Sara wasn’t sure how that was possible. She had first believed that it might of had to do with Thea being significantly smaller, but seeing her evade Laurel’s arms at Sara shaking her head and wondering whether she had the ability to phase through walls.

Of course, the one time that Thea did get tagged, she stayed that way for longer than anyone else, which brought a little bit of satisfaction to Sara. And, she begrudgingly admitted, mean she didn’t cheat like anyone else would have. They were only interrupted when one of the Queen’s maids called out that she brought snacks.

They all clambered out of the pool, snatching one of the impossibly fluffy towels and dug into an array of chips, pretzels, and candy. “Okay,” Ava muttered to Sara, “This is weird.”

“If it wasn’t,” Sara shot back, “I’d wonder if you had been lying to me the entire time. It’s weird to me too.” The group talked for a bit, Ollie and Tommy filling Ava on adventures they’d had with Laurel. They kept it relatively PG for Thea, but Sara was sure that Ava was able to fill in the details.

Once it got dark, Laurel, Sara, and Ava bid them all goodbye. Once they were home, and Sara and Ava were safely in her room, Sara turned to Ava, “So? What did you think?”

Ava plopped onto Sara’s bed. “It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.”

“No?” Sara asked taking a seat next to Ava.

“No, I mean, it was weird to see how they lived. With their maids and endless supply of snacks and almost no real consequences.” Ava said, “But they don’t seem malicious or anything. Just a little-” Ava paused.

“Sheltered? Careless? Obscenely wealthy?”

“Yeah, thank you.” Ava sighed. “I mean I had fun, and Thea is freaking adorable.”

“But how did she managed to be so good at Marco Polo?” Sara exclaimed.

Ava laughed. “I can’t believe you’re still thinking about that.”

“I mean if it was an olympic sport.” Sara shrugged. “That girl’s going places.”

“They’re okay.” Ava said. “I mean I’d never hang out with them alone. But if that’s what you’re doing, then I’m fine with it.”

“Cool.” Sara smiled. “And yes, I agree with you. I’d only really hang with them if Laurel was there.”

“Well, I feel like you know exactly how I feel about them then.” Ava stated.

“I think I do.” Sara said.

 

Soccer tryouts were pretty much a bore. With all the practice that her and Ava put into it, Sara could feel how good she was. Crisp, clean, even early morning jitters didn’t stop her. And the next day when she got the call from Coach Mary it was not accompanied by any of the nervousness that annoyed her family from last year. She had asked for the roster and yelped in glee when hearing that Ava was on the team.

After yelling the news to the empty house, Sara went to go find Ava only to be stopped by a knock on the door. Sara was about to yell at whoever was out selling things, only to find Ava grinning behind. “We both made it!” Sara said.

They hugged each other for a long moment, and then Sara welcomed Ava in as they discussed plans for what the new season would bring.

The only hurdle, was at the first practice, when parents bombarded Coach Mary with questions, the team mom said, “We require all parents to volunteer for this team, and pay the amount listed on these sheets.” They’d handed them out and Sara and Ava had glanced at the sheets that her parents got. Sara had felt Ava go completely still and rapidly turn white.

“There’s no way.” Ava had whispered to Sara while the team mom went on some boring tangent.

Sara’s mom overheard and rubbed Ava’s back, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to Coach Mary.”

“You don’t have too.” Ava tried to protest.

Sara’s mom just leveled her with a look. “I’m a parent, it’s my job. Your father is working right now, that’s what he needs to do.”

Sara and Ava had waited by the car after the meeting, but her mom came out five minutes later with a grin. “There will be nothing for you to worry about.”

Sara and Ava nodded, but for the next few days Ava was exceedingly helpful when she was over at Sara’s. It finally took Sara’s mom pulling her aside and repeating that Ava didn’t owe her anything.

Other than that, the season was great. Coach Mary pushed them extremely hard, harder than Sara had ever been pushed before, but she could easily see the results. They won their first games handily, and there seemed like nothing was going to slow them down. The other girls on the team were, nice-ish. They had formed their own cliques already, and seemed to regard Ava and Sara with indifference. It wasn’t horrible, but Sara hoped that by the end of the season there would be more camaraderie.

Sara wasn’t a starter, which while she was disappointed about, made sense. She was the newbie, after all. She still got a lot of playing time, and was usually the first off the bench. Ava was starting in the back, which after a bit of jealousy, Sara got over. Ava deserved it and was one of the best backs that she had seen her age.

It was good though, and she reflected it all on one of the rare Saturday mornings that they didn’t have a game or practice. The blankets were haphazardly thrown around her, kicked at some point during the warm night, with a soft light drifting through the curtains where she hadn’t been careful enough to close perfectly. She could faintly here movements downstairs, her parents and Laurel already up even though they all had no pressing appointments.

There was a knock on the door, and Sara frowned wondering who could possibly be at the door. There were soft voices and then someone came up the stairs and suddenly her door was being eased open. Sara stared at the opening to be greeted with Ava’s head poking through.

“Ava?” She asked.

“Hey.” Ava said. “I didn’t wake you up did I?”

“No.” Sara said and began to sit up in bed, the blankets bunching at her waist, “What’s up?”

She examined Ava before her. She looked tireder than usual, wearing her blue hoodie that had seen better days years ago. She hesitated in the door frame, and Sara patted the spot next to her.

“I,” Ava opened and closed her mouth, “I, well, I, wanted to hang with you, but I thought you would already be up.”

Sara stared at her for a couple seconds, and then realizing that whatever was bugging Ava wasn’t going to be revealed now. “Okay. But it is nine-thirty on a Saturday.”

Ava wrung her hands, “I can leave.”

“No, come in.” Sara swung her legs out of bed. “I’m basically up already.” Ava crossed Sara’s room and sat next to her. “You okay?”

Ava hesitated, “Yes.”

“Okay.” Sara said, “What do you want to do today?”

Ava looked at her hands, “You fine with watching TV today?”

Sara looked at the window before she could stop herself. The sun was already shining brightly. “Sure.”

Ava let her shoulders fall as tension eased from her shoulders, and she stood. Sara rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and followed her, as they trekked down the stairs.

“She’s alive.” Her dad laughed.

Sara rolled her eyes, but flopped onto the couch next to Ava as they flipped on the TV. Her mom peered in at them, her eyes darting, but left them be for the time being. Sara let herself start to relax, glad that her mom could see that something was up with Ava.

Ava leaned against Sara as they mindlessly watched cartoons, laughing at the horrible humor and making fun of the rest. At one point, her mom asked if they wanted any breakfast, and Ava gave a smile, the first of the day, when Sara’s stomach let out a large growl.

It was nice, and Sara did her best to push out all thoughts of whatever was up with Ava, and just enjoyed being lazy. Something, she rarely did. Members of her family flitted in and out, but they were never too bothered. Ava didn’t talk much, and smiles never really reached her eyes. Sara knew that she needed to get over herself, the fact that Ava was here spoke enough, but she couldn’t ignore the stab of hurt that ached through her as Ava didn’t talk about what was truly bothering her. Eventually the TV got repetitive enough that Ava suggested they go outside, and Sara happily agreed.

They made their way to the park where they first met and did many of the same things that they did that first summer. Ava could still jump farther from the swings than Sara. Ava grew lighter, and at one point, where they were both sitting in partial shade to catch their breath, Sara finally spoke.

“I’m not going to pretend that something isn’t up with you today.” Ava opened her mouth, but Sara continued on, “I don’t know what it is, and while yeah, I would like to know, I understand if you can’t talk about it right now, for whatever reason.”

Ava closed her mouth and then nodded as she looked away. “Thank you.”

Some invisible tension released from Ava’s shoulders and Sara felt the knot in her chest release. They continued to play, eventually just swaying on the swings and talking. As the sun dipped below the hills, they trudged back to Sara’s house, arriving right before dinner was placed on the table.

The conversation was kept light, her parents telling stories about their various jobs. Sara was fairly sure that they were exaggerating the details, she couldn’t believe that some kid had smuggled his ferret into a huge lecture hall because he was scared that the RA would find it if he kept it in his dorm room. Everyone was laughing, and it took a second to consider how normal this was.

Ava was practically living at their house most days. She shared a minimum of one meal with them a day. A grin spread across Sara’s face as this sunk in. Her father asked about Ava, but now it was because he knew her. Laurel and Ava got along with an ease that Sara had never seen with any of her friends before. And her mother always remarked on how impressed she was with Ava every time she left. It definitely helped that Ava was always asking how to help and doing a much better job than Sara ever had.

As the conversation began to lull, Sara asked, “It’s cool if Ava stays the night tonight?”

Her mom chuckled, “Of course it’s fine. Any time it’s not a school night and you don’t have a game in the morning, Ava can stay over.”

“I just wanted to check.” Sara shrugged and then glanced over at Ava who was smiling softly at her. Ava hadn’t asked, and Sara had a feeling that she would have just left that night, unsure if she was welcome, if Sara hadn’t.

Dinner wrapped up and Ava, as usual offered to help with the dishes but was waved off by Sara’s mom weilding a dish towel and they made their way into Sara’s room.

“Thank you.” Ava said.

“For what?”

“Sara.” Ava placed her hands on Sara’s shoulders as they gazed into each other’s eyes. “You already know what. Just you, being you. Making me feel welcome, not pushing me, everything.”

“You’d do it for me.” Sara said.

“Doesn’t mean you have to do it for me.” Ava gently placed one of her hands underneath Sara’s chin. “You do so much, okay?”

“Okay.” Sara said and felt herself blushing for no reason.

“Good.” Ava hugged her and they held on for several long moments.

When they released, they went about to getting ready. Sara tossed Ava some pajamas, the one pair she had that were too big on her and therefore only a little too small on Ava, and then brushed their teeth and climbed into Sara’s bed. It was really too small, just a twin, but the first time that Ava had slept over had been an accident, and the offering of any sort of air mattress afterwards seemed pointless. They got along well enough all tangled up and half on each other.

“Good night.” Sara said where she was muffled against the wall.

“G’night.” Ava answered.

Sara did her best to quiet her mind from all the questions that she had, and rocked slightly in the bed, staring up at the dark ceiling as she listened to Ava’s soft breaths, eyes tracing the lights that were drifting through the blinds. She just stared as her eyes started to flicker closed, when Ava’s soft voice broke through the darkness, “Are you awake?”

“Yes.” Sara whispered back.

“Ok.” Ava said and turned so that her back was to Sara. “Today is when my mother died.”

Sara tried to hide her intake of breath but she couldn’t. She tentatively laid a hand on Ava’s back and rubbed circles, like what her mom did whenever they were really sick.

“Oh.”

Ava let out a long sigh. “I mean I didn’t even really know her. I was five.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t miss her.” Sara said.

“It’s stupid. I mean my dad, he truly misses her.”

“Ava.”

“I mean today, it’s just not a good day to be in the house. It’s one of the only days that he gets off.” Sara felt Ava’s back stiffen. “So thanks.”

“Ava. I never met your mother, but I know that she loved you.” Ava started to shake. “And you’re allowed to miss that. Even the idea of it. You’re allowed to be sad.”

“The only images I have of her are from pictures.” Ava croaked.

“And you get to be sad about that.” Sara had to stop herself from getting angry with whoever or whatever caused Ava to think this. “If you weren’t than I think that would be a bit crazy.” Ava gave a small chuckle. “I mean she was your mom. One of your parents. So what if you don’t have some memories of her cause you were little. She’s still your mom.”

“Thank you.” Ava said.

“You don’t need to thank me, but you’re welcome I guess.”

Ava turned over so she was facing Sara. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You’re really going to make me cocky.” Sara smiled.

Ava playfully pushed her on the shoulder, a small smile gracing her features. “Goodnight for real this time.”

“Goodnight.”

They both settled back into the bed and Sara found herself easily drifting off.

In the morning, she awoke to see that Ava was still out like a light. Her face was peaceful, the first time it had looked like in 24hrs. Their were the usual noises from people getting ready and eating breakfast and Sara carefully slipped out of bed and then walked downstairs.

“You’re up early.” Her mom remarked. “Ava alright?”

“She’s fine, still asleep.” Sara said and then hugged her mom. 

Her mom froze. “Are you alright?” She asked as she hugged Sara back.

“Yes. I love you. Just wanted you to know.”

Her mom’s face never lost it’s quizzical look and said, “I love you too.”

Sara extracted herself and then repeated the action with Laurel and her dad before calmly sitting down and pouring herself a bowl of cereal ignoring the confused looks around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's been a while, but here you go. My semester is almost over, so I'm hoping that during the break I'll be able to write a lot (fingers crossed). Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my work, it really helps encourage me. If you ever want to chat, my tumblr is @zipzin.


End file.
